Happy Selfie Day everyone! If you’ve not snapped and shared a self portrait yet today there’s still time. If you’ve not heard of Selfie Day before, you might be surprised to know that it’s been running on June 21^st since back in 2014 when it was started by a DJ in the US. Since then, like the Selfie itself the world has taken Selfie Day to its heart. So much so that a handful of major retailers in the US actually ran special offers today for Selfie Day. Crazy, huh?

It’s not just the power of freebies that the Selfie has bestowed upon us though. In the past, the word itself has been named word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary and the social media driven trend of selfie taking has more than made its mark on the worlds of photography and tech too. Let’s take a peek at some of the areas where the selfie has shown its power..

Inspired weird gadget inventions

If we told you fifteen years ago that some people would start carrying sticks around so that they could take their own photograph, would you have believed us? We’ve documented the rise of the curious selfie gadgets on the blog before, featuring kit that goes beyond the humble selfie stick including shoes, spectacles and drones. And today, McDonalds in the US are reportedly giving away a free frylus to make using your phone or taking a selfie mid-burger a little less messy.

Driven photographic technology

Remember when your self-facing phone camera only ever took grainy photographs? Perhaps you can remember as far back to when phones didn’t come with cameras at all. It’s really quite astonishing to consider the impact our love of selfies has had on the development of phone cameras. Some now compe with 360 camera capability and those such as Huwei and Apple are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to help us take better selfies too. That’s pretty cool.

Caused legal battles

There are plenty of high profile places where taking selfies or wielding a selfie stick is strictly forbidden but did you know that selfies have tested the law too? In April 2018 judgement was delivered on a series of disputes over the copyright of selfies taken by black apes on the camera of British photographer David Slater. The judge ruled that the animals could not hold the copyright to the photos despite being the individuals who took the images. It was also ruled that photographs taken by non-humans were non-copyrightable. That’s worth remembering if your dog gets their paws on your smartphone or camera!

We hope you’ve enjoyed Selfie Day and these fun facts about selfies. If you’d like to improve your selfie game, check out our post on taking the perfect selfie. In the meantime, don’t forget that selfies existed before social media came around. As Buzz Aldrin reminds us, he was the first man to selfie in space.