Selfie-Objectification as a Facet of the Social Media Craze Among Youths in Nigeria

Abstract

The advent of the social media in Nigeria has given rise to a plurality of information technology syndromes as well as multiple forms of social leprosies. One of these social leprosies has been selfie-objectification manifested by naked and highly sexualized selfies. As a form of social pathology, selfie-objectification has particularly engulfed the youths, corrupting the latter's innocence and affecting the positive relationship culture among them. Using observations and secondary sources, this chapter explores two opposing perspectives on selfie-objectification in Nigeria namely conservative and liberal. It criticizes the conservative reading of the self-objectification paradigm, arguing that any interpretation of selfie-objectification by Nigerian youths solely as a culturally insensitive act and a western cultural import is myopic and objectionable. The phenomenon should rather be read along the line of Nigerian youths' visible embrace of a liberal and postmodern philosophy of life.