As part of the army's broader campaign to show how negative stereotypes about young people can be assets in the army, I saw this on the gram this morning.
Now, I haven’t been privy to the insight behind this, or any of the thinking, but based solely on the ad I can assume it was something like this...
“People who constantly share selfies are confident about who they are and are very sure of themselves. These are qualities that the army hold in high regard so they should consider a career in the armed forces.”
If this is indeed the logic, I am afraid I don’t buy it.
There are a number of reasons why “selfie addicts” take a lot of selfies and at the root isn’t always confidence. Taking selfies is the norm on social channels, so it doesn’t always require a huge amount of confidence to take them. It could just relate to the behavioural principle of “social norming” - everyone is taking selfies, so should I.
Also, people who take a lot of selfies might just be vain. Vanity isn’t interchangeable with confidence, certainly not the confidence you need in the army where vanity is likely to hold you back. Rolling around in the mud and not showering for days isn’t something I can imagine Kim K enjoying, can you?
Finally, some people who share selfies all the time are not confident at all and in fact have very low self esteem. They take selfies to gain likes as a way to boost their self confidence.
So while I like how the army is trying to make their creative ‘relevant’ for social media and it speaks to broader, younger demographic, for me it doesn’t fully understand selfie culture so makes their call to action a little tenuous.
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