After Makati and Pasig Cebu City among world’s ‘selfiest’

CEBU, Philippines -  Better keep making and uploading those selfies.

Cebu City has been named as among the world’s cities with the most “selfies” posted online, on a list topped by National Capital Region’s Makati and Pasig.

Based on TIME magazine’s database of more than 400,000 photos, Cebu City was ninth, with 99 selfie-takers per 100,000 people, as mentioned in the article “The Selfiest Cities in the World: TIME’s Definitive Ranking” that was also posted online via TIME’s website, www.time.com.

The write-up listed the top 100 cities in the world with most selfies posted via photo and video sharing social media site Instagram. The cities of Makati and Pasig topped the list, earning the title “The Selfiest Cities of the World.” 

According to TIME, there were a combined 258 selfie takers in the two cities for every 100,000 people.  (The country has already been named the texting and later the social media capital of the world.)

“An examination of hundreds of  thousands of selfies – the low-fi, self-shot photographs that are intensely popular among younger social media users – suggests that the city, part of metropolitan Manila and home to 500,000 people, produces more selfies per capita than any other city in the world,” read the TIME’s article.

“Makati City, known as the financial center of the Philippines, can now boast another distinction: It is the Selfie Capital of the World,” said TIME editor Chris Wilson.

The other cities in the world that made it to the top 10 are Manhattan (2nd), Miami (3rd), Anaheim and Santa Ana (4th), Petaling Jaya in Malaysia (5th), Tel Aviv in Israel (6th) Manchester (7th), Milan (8th), George Town in Malaysia (10th).

Other Philippine cities on the list are Baguio (16th), Quezon City (59th) Iloilo (72nd), Davao (103rd), Cagayan de Oro (114th), Bacolod (119th) and Zamboanga (251st).

A selfie is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”

A total of 402,197 photos using the hashtag “#selfie” with location identified were covered in the study.

TIME said the photos – which will not be permanently stored on its servers as per Instagram’s terms of service, were downloaded during two five-day periods—Jan. 28 to Feb. 2 and March 3 to 7 this year.

A myriad of reactions from Filipinos immediately flooded social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, among others, with the article being one of the online trending topics yesterday.

The FREEMAN asked some Cebu-based netizens, the popular term for people who actively participate in online communities on the Internet, about their take on the new tag for the Philippines.

Self-confessed selfie-taker,  Jaysee John Pingkian, 24, believed the recognition is a testament to the resilience of Filipinos, particularly on their being able to bounce back and continue being active online despite the big calamities that struck the country last year.

“I’m so happy to have heard of an article that validates how Filipinos love themselves. After all we have been through, it just proves how resilient we truly are and our smiles fortify just that,” said Cebuano blogger Pingkian, a publishing services design consultant.

He was referring to the Oct. 15 magnitude 7.2 earthquake that destroyed hundreds of structures especially in Bohol and super typhoon Yolanda that devastated the Visayas last Nov. 8, leaving on its wake leveled structures and thousands of lives lost.

While feeling proud as she, too, is a selfie-taker in Cebu, 26 year-old nurse Glaiza May Sumondong-Limpang cautioned that selfies could be used for online exploitation.

“Proud in the sense that it only means Cebu has the most beautiful faces in the world. And it only shows the advancement of technology in Cebu, coz selfie started in social networking sites in the virtual world. And if number nine ta, meaning, a vast number of people, not only teens, are obsessed with social media networking using different gadgets,” she said.

“On the other hand, selfies could be a way of virtual prostitution... And if number nine ta…dili siya maayo. Kay nakakita mn gud ko sa TV nga naay

babaye dghan kaayo selfies na gwapa dayon para diay mag-chat aron mangkwarta (It is not good. Because I saw on TV one time that there was this beautiful woman who posted a lot of selfies whose real intent was to find someone to chat for money purposes),” she added.

Another selfie-taker, Harren Buno, stressed that the recognition should not be taken against the Cebuanos.

“I think we should not take it negatively. It means to say, as Cebuanos, we are proud of who we are. Selfies are simply reflections of self-exploration,” said the 28-year-old call center trainer.

Meanwhile, non-selfie-taker and computer gaming fan Prince Andrew Fernan, 26, equated selfie with vanity.

“Ako, I don’t do selfies. I’m not vain enough kay most gyud sa mag-selfie kay mga vain. Remember when selfie was not yet the trend? When someone is bored, they post photos of themselves and name the album ‘when boredom strikes’ or ‘when vanity strikes.’ Also, I don’t trust my face that much. I might get negative feedbacks from FB (Facebook) friends,” he said, in jest.

Another non-selfie fan, 28 year-old musician and blogger Chai Fonacier,  said she made a blog experiment in January, where she took selfies and posted it to her online journal.

“Selfies, as far as my readings have gone, are not only a sign of narcissism. I mean yeah, sure it is but through selfies we also inadvertently reveal things about us that we were not aware of. I’ll take my project as an example. I don’t take so many selfies just because I’m lazy. The first half of the month was me getting into the groove of it, but I also noticed that as I went along, I always tended to use heavy shadows, or tended to cover my face, render myself in

black and white,” said the UP Cebu Mass Communication graduate.

“Why is that? While the photos looked like unusual selfies and are interesting to see, I also revealed that I am not comfortable looking at my own face,” she added.  —With Philippine Star News Service/RHM (FREEMAN)