“Selfie” Becomes The Word Of The Year

Oxford Dictionaries recently announced that “selfie” is the 2013 word of the year. There was stiff competition between “selfie” and “twerk”; however, “selfie” came to be victorious. If you don’t know what a selfie is, Oxford Dictionaries defines it as: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”

USA Today reports that Oxford Dictionaries have analyzed that usage of the word has increased 17,000 percent over the past 12 months. People take selfies everywhere from school, home, or even at funerals! They are uploaded to many websites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What many don’t know is that the term “selfie” originated in Australia with a young drunk first using the word to describe a self-portrait photograph more than a decade ago. Years later, the term “selfie” hit mainstream media and developed into a popular hashtag used by many people every day.

While Oxford has chosen “selfie” as the word of the year, it is not included in the actual Oxford Dictionary itself yet. It is only on the online Oxford Dictionaries website, but it is still being considered to be included. In time more words (created through social media) may be included into the dictionary as actual words.

By: Christopher Watkins- Morgan Park High School