Jasmine Mikulak | Staff Writer

May 1, 2014

The Oxford Dictionaries defines the word selfie as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

Last year, in 2013, Oxford Dictionaries announced as the word of the year.

Selfies have been around for about three centuries.

In 1839, Robert Cornelius took the first considered selfie behind his family store in Philadelphia.

On the back of the photo he wrote, “The first light picture ever taken. 1839.” Selfies have been a groundbreaking trend.

Famous selfies you may remember would be President Obama’s selfie at Nelson Mandela’s funeral with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British Prime Minister David Cameron and Ellen Degeneres’ selfie at the Oscars with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, etc.

Selfies can be found anywhere, including on social media websites.

When Riverside City College student Martin Hernandez was asked if social media has made selfies mainstream, he said, “Yes, you’re even writing an article about it.

Even the word selfie is really mainstream, there’s songs about it and stuff.”

There are some forms of selfies, but the most popular ones are front camera or mirror selfies.

“I use the front camera, you have to have the right angle,” said Dajohn Murray student of RCC when asked what his preferred selfie was.

However, when RCC student Bobby Bryant was asked if he took selfies his response was, “I don’t take selfies, only when my dad wants to send pictures to my grandma.”

The lengths people are willing to go for the perfect selfie can vary.

Take for example when ABC News covered a story on 38-year-old Triana Lavey who spent $15,000 on plastic surgery just to get the perfect selfie face.

Or for example, twitter user @SelfieOlympics displays many selfies from the bizarre to less complicated selfies.

The selfie Olympics began in 2013 and since then has made selfie history.

The Twitter page includes ordinary people doing not so ordinary things in their selfie to make it all the more bizarre.

It also includes celebrities like Bill Nye with President Obama and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Either way selfies are here to stay and people are going to any length to make them the best.

How far are you willing to go to get the perfect selfie?