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  • Every year, the editors of Oxford Dictionaries name their Word of the Year.

  • They just chose their word for 2013

  • and that word is selfie

  • You know

  • a picture you take of yourself

  • usually with a smartphone and usually uploaded to the Internet with an ironic hashtag

  • and all too often it’s taken with a duckface

  • According to a statement on the Oxford Dictionariesblog

  • they choose words that aren’t necessarily new

  • but that assert some kind of prominence in society

  • The word selfie has been traced as far back as 2002

  • but it’s grown more than 17,000 percent this year alone

  • The statement goes on to say about selfie

  • If it’s good enough for the Obamas and the Pope

  • then it’s good enough for Word of the Year

  • Another word they considered was binge-watch

  • the practice of watching a million episodes of a TV show in a row through a smart device

  • They also considered showrooming

  • a word that refers to the practice of going to a store to check out items

  • and then going home to buy them online for less money

  • thus, screwing the store

  • Another word nominee was twerk

  • That’s all I’m going to say about that.

  • Those words are all overused enough to qualify

  • but Oxford really wanted to choose a word that truly reflected the state of our present culture

  • and selfie was the perfect choice

  • because it genuinely captures how self-obsessed were all becoming

  • Weve all got Facebook pages for our hobbies

  • We all have Kickstarters

  • where we ask our friends and families to give us money

  • for whatever we feel like doing besides working for someone else

  • The Internet is conditioning us all to believe how important we are

  • and that is turning our attention inward

  • Were now more concerned with our profile pictures

  • than with what’s going on in the world around us

  • Oxford crystallized this point by choosing the word selfie

  • So maybe we can use this as a learning opportunity

  • to open our eyes about our selfish ways

  • Maybe we can start pointing our cameras at other things than ourselves

  • Maybe we can start pointing them at worthwhile causes

  • that need attention or natural beauty or social injustices

  • and strive to make unselfie the word for 2014

  • Or if that’s too much to ask of society

  • then maybe we can just strive for a little less duckface

  • Tonight, let’s talk about that by following me on Twitter at The Resident

Every year, the editors of Oxford Dictionaries name their Word of the Year.

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