{"id":335,"date":"2014-05-08T06:47:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T13:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2018-05-08T10:34:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T17:34:44","slug":"brief-history-selfie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of the Selfie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Final<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jack Edwards<\/strong><\/p>\n

It strikes without warning. One moment a young man is, for example, standing on the precipice of the Grand Canyon. He gazes out\u00a0over the awe-inspiring vista. Eons of history lie before him – thought provoking proof that the gentle force of water in unison with time can carve an almost unimaginably beautiful sculpture. More an experience than a view, a sight to make even the most strident atheist consider the existence of a universal creator. But, time for all that later.<\/em> The young man has priorities. He pops out his cell phone and turns around to snap off several selfies. In a few of them, you can almost identify the backdrop behind his grinning face as one of world\u2019s major wonders.<\/p>\n

You might think that this self-absorbed behavior is a product of the current \u201cme\u201d generation. You would be RIGHT! But like your crabby high school English teacher, I am only able to award you partial<\/em> credit. Any archaeologist worth his salt knows that cavemen invented the selfie. But it was slow to take off because: 1. Everybody\u2019s selfie looked identical \u2013 a circle with two dots for eyes, and 2. Internet speeds were very slow back then, so they had to go and convince their caveman friends to actually walk over to their cave to admire it. If you ask any Ph.D. in Art History to take a moment from mopping the floor at Starbucks,\u00a0\u00a0they\u2019ll tell you that the \u201cFather of the Selfie\u201d was actually Vincent van Gogh. One of the greatest myths perpetuated on the western world is that van Gogh cut off his ear during a psychotic episode. No. He cut off his ear while accidently backing up into a threshing machine while attempting to sketch a quick selfie. His most celebrated selfie, of course, is titled \u201cSelf-Portrait Holding a Possum,\u201d which launched the selfie renaissance of the Mid-19th<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

The selfie craze has now hit critical mass. Even the staunchest libertarians now agree that federal legislation is needed. Bi-partisan support is building in Congress for a bill that would require everyone to obtain a \u201cselfie license\u201d before posting a selfie online. The goal is to reduce the following unfortunate occurrences:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Duckface selfies (this is sooo 2013)<\/li>\n
  2. Overly-smug selfies (often with the subject\u2019s smirking mug framed by an exotic location)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    and, of course,<\/p>\n

    3.\u00a0 Naked selfies (although, admittedly, this would make a great name for a band \u2013 \u201cNow, taking the stage, The Naked Selfies!)<\/p>\n

    So please, urge your representatives and senators to support this much needed legislation. Remember, the embarrassing selfie you save could be your own.<\/p>\n

    Please take a moment to share!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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    It\u2019s a Three Minute Vacation for your Brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    ______________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Check out these great books for gifts:<\/p>\n

    The Lawyer\u2019s Song: Navigating the legal wilderness<\/em><\/strong> at \u2013<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/buff.ly\/2K41Tax<\/p>\n

    Seven Rules for the College Playground –<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/buff.ly\/2IqXxgn<\/p>\n

    Seven Secrets You Need to Know to Hire the Right Lawyer –<\/strong><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/buff.ly\/2roFIov<\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Jack Edwards It strikes without warning. One moment a young man is, for example, standing on the precipice of the Grand Canyon. He gazes out\u00a0over the awe-inspiring vista. Eons of history lie before him – thought provoking proof that the gentle force of water in unison with time can carve an almost unimaginably beautiful […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[18,532,33,19,271,272],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-funny","tag-humor","tag-laugh","tag-lol","tag-selfie","tag-van-gogh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1270,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}