The selfie storm reached its pinnacle at the Oscars earlier this year when Ellen Degeneres took the record-breaking selfie heard round the Internet. But was that actually an “usie”?
The AP recently reported on the growing trend of group selfies.
“Usies are a growing trend that I think have far more social value than selfies,” said Michal Ann Strahilevitz, a professor of marketing at Golden Gate University in San Francisco who studies consumer behavior. “It’s magical capturing moments we share with other people.” In contrast to one-person selfies, usies are “more about the relationship, and less about you and your hair,” she said. The word — sometimes spelled usie, sometimes ussie — has been showing up in written material since at least April 2013, according to Ben Zimmer, executive producer of Vocabulary.com and language columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
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Zimmer continued that there are other terms used for self-photography, depending on the number of people being shot.
“There are countless variations on the theme, including ‘twofie,’ ‘threefie,’ et cetera, if you want to specify the number of people photographed,” said Zimmer.
Last week, Lost Remote got up-close exposure to how selfies–or shall I say, “usie’s”– are taking over. While covering the OneRepublic concert, “Today” show associate producer Alex Ficquette told us adoring show fans filling the 30 Rock plaza now want selfies instead of traditional autograph
“Everyone wants the selfie, with me, and the anchors. That leads directly into social media,” he told us. We will keep an eye on the literature to see if we start seeing more “usie’s” being dropped on social and web media.