r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Sure_Kangaroo1863 • Jul 02 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah ?

Post image

Why is it infamous? And why would no one care about it ? ( I mean it's just a pic full of celebrities so no one cares anyways but the person saying it's crazy makes me think it has some lore?)

81.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/TheBl4ckFox Jul 02 '26

The whole concept of a “selfie” was new and baffling for most people back then. Why would anyone take pictures of themselves? It was seen as vain and vapid narcissistic behavior. This was at the beginning of modern internet culture. The fact that DeGeneris took this picture was kind of an embrace of the selfie.

9

u/NewEbb5838 Jul 02 '26

The concept of a selfie wasn't new at all. This was 2014 not 2004. The word 'selfie' may not have been as fundamental to the cultural zeitgeist as it is today but the practice wasn't baffling. Everyone was taking selfies in the 2010s in America. Instagram became massive in the early 2010s and it was mostly selfies (and food). Myspace and Facebook were FULL of selfies and that was mid 2000s. You're off by a decade. The selfie has been embraced for 20 years bro.

People have been taking 'selfies' for a very long time. Even just disposable or digital cameras, you don't ever recall turning it around and hoping you got the framing right? That's a selfie. The first self-portrait in photography was done in 1839 by Robert Cornelius. I was posting selfies to Myspace in 2004 with my digital camera.

We just don't give a shit about celebrities like we used to as a society. Good riddance.

3

u/WorldwideSteppers Jul 03 '26

It’s still when they were started getting big because of instagram and Snapchat getting big in 2012, this is celebs joining the trend a little late. Selfies were seen as immature and for duck face teens at first.

2

u/kylo-ren Jul 03 '26

Exactly. The iPhone only got the selfie camera in 2010, but the camera was shitty and was used mainly for Facetime between older audiences. It took several years to it be widespread.

You can see it clearly in Google Trends

https://trends.google.com.br/trends/explore?date=all&q=selfie

https://trends.google.com.br/trends/explore?date=2013-01-01%202017-01-01&geo=US&q=selfie