I think it’s very hard to not have heard about Jennifer Aniston record-breaking selfie. Yes, record breaking. She managed to break, and set a new Guinness-world Record of the fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Instagram, which she did in just 5 hours and 16 minutes, the previous record being that of 5 hours and 45 minutes. Jennifer Aniston finally decided to join the Instagram community and did so with a bang. Her Selfie with her ex co-stars from the well-known ‘Friends Cast’ had the internet going crazy.
So the main question is why did the internet blow up? How did Jennifer Aniston manage to break the record by such a margin? Does the fact that she posted a selfie has anything to do with it? Honestly speaking, yes. The fact that Jennifer Aniston chose to post a selfie rather than an ‘average’ photo, creates a sense of intimacy and authenticity in her content. Followers of the famous ‘Friends’ Tv show (which there are many of) felt an almost intimate experience of the cast present together. The ‘selfie’ gives an imitation of ‘real’ time feelings and emotions which were felt at the time the selfie was taken.
While social media, specifically Instagram, is currently tailored towards curated content, with professionally edited photos and videos, followers still seem to appreciate the authentic. Perhaps that’s the reason why people take selfies? To create a more intimate representation of the moment being lived at the moment? Would her post have received so much attention if the photo, still with the ‘Friends’ cast, was a normal photo rather than a selfie?
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This is a project for Study Unit MCS3953, University of Malta.