New etiquette in order for selfies and groufies

YOU can blame the Oxford dictionary for making the "selfie" respectable. After all, being named word of the year does tend to soften some of the self-consciousness in this most self-conscious of actions.

YOU can blame the Oxford dictionary for making the "selfie" respectable. After all, being named word of the year does tend to soften some of the self-consciousness in this most self-conscious of actions.

But it was still a big leap from the word becoming respectable to the action itself shedding its narcissistic image. For that, you can blame Ellen DeGeneres, who choreographed the most famous group selfie yet at this year's Oscars when she roped in a bunch of actors and the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone. Her tweet of the photo became the most retweeted post yet on Twitter and is estimated to have been worth $1-million in marketing value to Samsung.

Ironically, it was Samsung's up-and-coming challenger, Huawei, that came up with a new word for this type of selfie: the "groufie". Thanks to an 8MP front camera on the new Huawei Ascend P7 camera, it takes the highest-quality selfies - and groufies - possible with a smartphone.

We can expect selfies and groufies to morph into variations such as selfscapes (selfie in a landscape), skyfies (selfies from the air, using remote controlled devices) and jerkies (selfies to make an idiot out of yourself). I just invented all of those, so it's easy to imagine a new word emerging for every type of selfie.

Although self-portraits are as old as photography - arguably the first portrait ever was a selfie, taken by Philadelphia chemist Robert Cornelius in 1839, whereas teenage selfies go back to Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova's 1913 effort - it has only become a consumer obsession with the advent of the front camera on the smartphone.

It is little wonder there is no etiquette around selfies.

Samsung received a presidential rap over the knuckles when it engineered a sequel to the Oscars hit, getting Boston Red Sox baseball star David Ortiz to snap a selfie with US President Barack Obama. "Maybe this will be the end of all selfies," said a White House adviser later.

It may not come to that, but it highlighted the need for some selfie ground rules.

Particularly because platforms for posting, finding and sharing selfies are becoming more common, they are already entering the realms of the human resource department. An ill-advised self-portrait in a bar or bedroom can as easily end up in the files of a recruitment agency as in a personal photo album.

So, for the sake of both personal reputation and career mobility, avoid the following:

Duck-face poses: no one wants to hire someone whose profile picture spells "half-wit" or "cat's rear";

Bad taste: ranging from funerals and memorials to disaster sites and public toilets. Common sense should tell you what's inappropriate for a selfie;

Conspicuous consumption: showing off your expensive taste in meals, cars or clothes is offensive to most;

Driving: oh, so you're vain and a dangerous driver?;

Gym: because no one cares;

Too many selfies: "me, me, me" is not a great advert for the self;

Firearms: great evidence to be taken down and used in a court of law or a job interview;

Bored face: if it bores you so much, imagine what it's doing to the rest of us;

Taking advantage: if you include others, get permission both for the picture and how you use it; and

Intimate or semi-naked: oversharing. And not only by yourself.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee