Human beings have always been looking for innovative and effective ways for their common communications. Social media has proved to be the best, quickest and most successful of all the means. It would be logical to claim that social media addiction has surpassed that of alcohol. The most charming and fascinating feature in this medium is to share photos, and this has led to a roaring boom in selfies.

Since we are using social media day in day out on laptops, smart phones and tabs, there cannot be available a person all the time to take pictures of us. Therefore, all of us have adapted to selfies as this is the fastest and easiest way to make snaps anywhere anytime and share them with friends and followers.

The main logic behind sharing selfies on social media is to get more likes and attract more followers, but this cannot be possible with ordinary and simple captures. In order to go viral, you need to put some exclusive, unique and different selfies. Here, we discuss a few good ideas that can help you taking better selfies next time.

Make Funny Looks

The social media sites are so heavily stuffed up with content that people no more pay attention to pictures with serious and decent faces, rather they hit funny ones. So, while you are going to take selfies, try to present funny looks. You can do it with lips, eyes, tongue and hair. The more funny your face looks, the greater likes it will get. Apart from generating hits for you, a funny selfies will bring smiles to others’ faces and this is what we call goodness.

And if you really wanna go crazy, you can follow British comedian Ricky Gervais who has a habit of taking ‘worst’ selfies that he can. He purposely makes it look amazingly hideous. Here’s a famous selfie of him.

Arrange Adequate Lights for Selfies

Light plays a key role in making a picture good or bad. Same is the case with selfies. When you are up to take one, make sure that there is available proper light around you. If you are outside, you do not need to care for this as natural light is enough. But when you indoor, you must position yourself in front of a lamp or bulb. With lights behind you or over your head, selfies will always be shady and dark. Facing a light source is always a good position.

Choose A Good Background

A good background can lift up the value of a selfies and an ugly one can ruin all of your effort. When we see a picture, we perceive it in the context of its background. A selfies with background of landscape will have a different effective than the one that is taken in a rush market. Thus, always pick backgrounds for your selfies carefully. Try to place yourself with back towards some green fields, beautiful planets, waterfalls, famous posters, landmarks and well-painted walls etc. The more catchy background your selfies have, the deeper they dig in the eyes of viewers.

Usain Bolt taking his selfie under “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil.

Reserve Selfies To Special Occasions

Quantity no more matters in digital world, because people have become more choosy and finicky due to the availability of abundant content over internet. Instead of 10 ordinary selfies, one special selfies is better and it will get more likes. Do not be messy while taking and sharing selfies. Some social media savvies seem to be putting an image every 20 mints. This irks viewers and, thus, they do not bother much.

So, try to reserve selfies to special occasions only i.e., you are out for a dinner with family, you are watching a red carpet show, you are meeting a celeb, you are in your college party or you are doing something different and interesting.

Ellen took this selfie during Academy Awards.

Make Selfies Thematic

While trotting through social media, a thematic selfie on someone’s timeline looks more striking and appealing than a simple one.  So, always try to incorporate some interesting theme in the snap you capture. You can play with dress colors, hair styles, tattoos, body gestures and movements in order to depict a specific theme. For example, with bright multicolored dress, sunglasses and beech, you can portray the theme of the advent of summer. Remember, a selfie that is just showing a face is far worse than the one that is representing a whole theme.

Photo by Lizz Fraser.

Try Odd Things

There is no second opinion in the fact that the focal point of all selfies are you and you only, but the things that you can change are places, poses, postures, gestures, angles and themes. Do not go straight while taking a selfie, rather try odd things. Think out of the box, go wild and do strange things. Use different angles like top, bottom, right, front, left, back etc. Take selfies during different activities of your routine life, then sit down and select a few good ones and share them with others. They will surely garner amazing responses.

Conclusion: Selfies Are Fun

Whatever the rules and methods of making selfies you use, just keep in mind that selfies are just meant for sharing some good and light moments with others. They are just fun, so do not take them so serious. Stay casual, stay rough and go on making selfies constantly. Other than being a good stuff for social media forums, selfies are the archives of your sweet and sour memories. You can save them on your hard drives or print them to make albums. Just keep the flame of this fun burning all the time in your life.

The popularity of selfies can be gauged by the fact that oxford dictionaries declared Selfie as word of the year in 2013. This fame is set to go up higher in the time to come, because more and more people are getting digital with the passage of every single day. That matter of fact is that if we remove the feature of selfies from social media, the entire system will become charmless and boring. Selfies is what that keeps you in-touch with your friends and families. This is what makes you happy and others too.

Links for further reading:

• Selfie Tips by CNN
• Things we can learn from Ellen’s Oscars selfie (Humor)