Abstract
There have recently been a series of high-profile media controversies around inappropriate selfies taken by young self-portraitists at trauma memorial sites. Popular media critiques propose that the selfie is a self-centred and disrespectful response to traumatic histories. In this article, I consider such selfies in light of cultural shifts in second-person witnessing. I propose that these selfies prompt a rethink for theorists of witnessing. What can we learn from these selfies regarding the ways that young people, mobile technologies and social media are impacting the way people may respond to communal traumas?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 384-399 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Memory Studies |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 11 Jul 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2020 |
Keywords
- Selfies
- memorialisation
- trauma
- witnessing
- youth
- selfies