Though mindful of how media often equates selfie production with narcissistic \u201cme generation\u201d behavior, we are interested in exploring the extent to which selfies enable new modalities of visual conversation among those who exchange them. Approaching the topic from our respective backgrounds\u2014 one of us is a communication scholar and one an anthropologist\u2014we were particularly interested in the degree to which selfie exchange echoes Richard Harper\u2019s descriptions of mobile and online texting and other conversation forms. In particular, in his book Texture (Harper, 2010) and in other work, he argues that these forms are not calculated processes or strategic games but rather authentic expressions of the true self. For example, he writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People do not text to each other because they are thinking about how to keep the However, as we believe our data will show, at least in terms of the visual forms of virtual Publisher: International Journal of Communication (2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-author: Elizabeth Thomas Crocker, Boston University<\/p>\n\n\n\n
balance in the equation of giving and receiving; no, they do these things mainly without
thinking. It comes naturally, or more accurately, it comes from the heart (Harper, 2003,
p. 215).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
interaction, there is great deal of calculation that takes place. This argument is an extension of Katz\u2019s thesis of perpetual contact (Katz & Aakhus, 2002), which was made in the domain of texting-based communication but here is applied here to visual communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n