If you’re on Instagram or any kind of social media platform, you’ll notice a lot of people like to take selfies. This is just one of those indisputable selfie facts. Selfies, today, have become a fixture in most people’s lives. It’s incredibly easy to capture and share your life with people these days. Often, it just takes a quick click on the shutter, some filters here and there, and then you’re sharing your morning walk with your Facebook friends.

If you aren’t on social media often (or at all), then selfies might not be too familiar to you. In that case, you’re probably wondering:

What is a selfie?

A selfie is any photograph of yourself taken by yourself. These days, there are different kinds of cameras you can use to take a selfie. You can use a webcam, a professional camera, or, more commonly, your smartphone’s front camera.

There are different styles of taking selfies too. Some popular kinds include mirror selfies at the gym or selfies at home with your pets. It’s a great way of allowing people to have a glimpse at your everyday life. That is, of course, if you want to share.

However, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes when it comes to the selfie. From its history and other shocking trivia about the popular Instagram trend, here are 40 selfie facts that you’ll want to know about!

Selfie Facts

QUICK FACTS

1. Only 4% of photos found on social media actually qualify as selfies.
2. Most selfie-takers are of the average age of 23.6 years old.
3. The average millennial will take around 25,700 selfies throughout their lifetime.
4. The Oxford English Dictionary named “selfie” as the Word of the Year in 2013.
5. In 2013, people started using the word “selfie” 17,000% more often.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

1. People use the hashtag, “#selfie,” to tag their self-portraits on Instagram.
2. On January 16, 2011, Instagram user Jennifer Lee was the first to ever caption her photo with “#selfie.”
3. Yeong-Ming Wang invented the selfie stick back in 2012.
4. The projected size of the selfie stick industry is around $174 million.
5. Department stores had to restock selfie sticks during the holidays in 2014 because it was the most popular Christmas gift then.
6. At the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, the world’s largest group selfie was taken with 2,000 people in the photo.
7. Facebook is the go-to social media platform for sharing selfies.
8. The second most popular way to share selfies is through private text messages.
9. Myspace self-portraits or Myspace pics were poor-quality images in front of a bathroom mirror and were common during 2006 – 2009.
10. While there isn’t an official rule book, some people follow a step-by-step process when taking selfies.

INTERESTING FACTS

1. Around 8% of people regret sending a selfie to potential romantic partners.
2. If it’s a “sexy selfie,” 36% of people often regret sending it.
3. An amateur pilot once crashed into a wheat field and died along with his passenger because they were taking selfies mid-flight.
4. The Eiffel Tower is the most popular place for selfies.

5. A study reveals that most selfies from London contain faces that do not seem happy.

The first-ever selfie dates back to an oil painting in 1524.

21-year-old artist Parmigianino painted his own reflection in his artwork called, “Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror.” This masterpiece is small and circular with a diameter of 9.6 in. Currently, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria houses this historic painting.

In the past, selfies weren’t easy to take.

Back then, selfie cameras weren’t a thing, so taking a selfie wasn’t as easy as striking a pose and clicking the shutter in the next second. In 1839, Robert Cornelius took the first photographic selfie.

He had to set up a camera on the stand, click the shutter, and run in front of the frame to pose. That’s a lot more tiring than today’s simple and quick shot with smartphones.