A taxonomy of selfies

Selfie
(Image credit: (Thinkstock))

That young woman who took the selfie after her plane blew a tire and skidded off the runway? I identify. I'd do it too. I think we all would, assuming we didn't have other things to worry about, like injuries, or fellow human beings requiring aid and attention.

Why do we take so many selfies? Even we semi-sane, literate people, those of us who read books in our spare time? Well, selfies help us mark the moment in history, and help us remember. Selfies are experiential catalogs.

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Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.