During the iPhone 17 launch event, Apple revealed that its customers took 500 billion selfies last year, a massive figure that shows just how normalized the practice has become.

Selfies were often mocked when they were deemed the purview of Instagram-obsessed teenage girls, but these days it’s not unusual to see everyone from seniors to a gaggle of sports bros gathering around a single phone like an object of worship.

Yes, now everyone is Instagram-obsessed, not just teenage girls. The ageism and misogyny was wrong. The negative assessment of people being vain was not.

This reads like an ad, with the romanticized stories.

We take photos to preserve memories, but selfies feel distinctive for their intimacy.

Feel distinctive; You sure it’s not the wider view angle leading to morphed images?

It’s definitely a bigger deal than I think. Given that the baseline of selfie camera expectations is “nothing.” So any utility would count.

I had something longer typed out, but this is just… So dumb

Wow, they’re really trying hard to justify their €2,000 sink into a nonrepairable phone.

Maybe if I used my selfie camera more often than never.