In a New York Times article Dan Zak discussed the new addiction and preoccupation our generation has with taking "selfies" and constantly posting these images on the Internet. The use of Facebook and Instagram has been replaced by selfies and the indulgence for people to feel self-worth and has created a new way of conforming to society. In the article, psychologist Sarah J. Gervais was quoted saying, “Such social media portrayal is as useful for self-empowerment as it is for self-objectification” (2013). The term "selfie" has become so popular in recent years that it was named Oxford's word of the year with a 17,000% increase over last year, giving us a new way to label our fascination with ourselves (Zak, 2013) . The author talks about our society's new self-obsession and how selfies allow us to share every detail of our lives and express the value we find in ourselves and others. There were two points of view in this article, one is that selfies are a new way of conforming to our narcissistic society and two, that Instagram offers resistance to traditional media pressures to be perfect. In relation to this article, our class discussed the topic of sexism and the impact that gender microaggressions have on both genders. Looking at this article and the course material you see a lot of overlap between restrictive gender roles, denial of sexism, sexual objectification, and benevolent sexism when examining the use of selfies and what they mean for men and women. This article addresses the discussion of the objectification of both genders, but primarily of men's and women's self-expression and women's attempt to escape the pressures of gender microaggressions. With new forms of social me... middle of paper... these images are published by the minute. There were two points of view in this article by Dan Zak, one of which is that selfies are a new way of conforming to our narcissistic society and two, that Instagram offers resistance to the pressures of traditional media to be perfect. I agree with the perspective that selfies are a new way of conforming to our society and openly objectifying and placing gender role stereotypes on both sexes. Looking at this article and the course material you see an overlap between restrictive gender roles, denial of sexism, sexual objectification, and benevolent sexism when looking at the use of selfies and social media. Our society has become so accustomed to restrictive gender roles that new generations tell each other what they see as perfect and push each other to become these sexual objects and give in to benevolent sexism..