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Today, on June 19th, Katrin Tiidenberg from the Tallinn University Institute of International and Social Studies will defend her doctoral thesis, in which she researched the practices of taking and sharing selfies or self-portraits by examples of Instagram and Tumblr.com. Her focus was on the relationship between subjectivity, cultural practices and social use of selfies.

In today’s post-visual turn world, a photograph is no longer a proof of reality (so-called record of truth), rather the images have become valuable as testaments of a moment. Their aesthetic is therefore fleeting, malleable and immediate. Everyday images taken by untrained authors give us a clue of what is considered photographing-worthy and this in turn has an effect on the identity-process and social construction of community and family.

Taking self-portraits has been called a narcissistic practice, a manifestation of vanity; Katrin Tiidenberg instead claims that selfies can be very meaningful identity tools: “Selfie-practices function as knowledge devices that allow experimentation with the self and one’s body. They help to develop self-reflexivity and offer a sense of control when used and shared in safe online environments.”

It is important to note that self-portraits do not bear a unified meaning that would apply on all platforms or to all users. As many other means of self-expression, selfies are extremely context-specific. A selfie carries different meanings at different times, on different platforms and to different people.

Tiidenberg says that regarding this context-specificity, the social and technical mergence taking place online is alarming: “In this Facebook-dominated situation we are being led to a world of social networks, where all accounts are interconnected and personalised – this has a much larger consequence to what we can to online and how it affects our identity than we think. The loss of convergence and anonymity is justified with a concern for safety, but from a cynical perspective, it has more to do with business interests of the platform owners. Looking at it from the perspective of identity work, recreation of community norms and shaming regimes, this is a rather negative development.”

Katrin Tiidenberg’s doctoral thesis „Image Sharing, Self-Making and Significant Relationships: Understanding Selfie-Practices / Piltide jagamine, identiteediloome ja tähenduslikud suhted – kuidas mõista selfipraktikaid?“ was supervised by lead researcher Nancy Baym from Microsoft Research New England and professor Airi-Alina Allaste from Tallinn University. Her opponents are professor Jill Walker Rettberg from Bergen University and associate professor Debra Ferreday from Lancaster University.

The doctoral thesis can be found at , the electronic research library of TU.

The public defence of the doctoral thesis will take place today, on Friday, June 19th at 11AM at the Tallinn University auditoorium M-213 (Uus-Sadama 5).