How often do you take selfies? The Oracle surveyed Archer students to find out. Fifteen percent of those surveyed said never, and another 29 percent said rarely. Wait. That doesn’t compute. Selfies are a phenomenon that is all the rage with teenage girls right now—the very population that makes up our school campus.

In fact, 25 percent of Archer girls admitted to snapping self-portraits and posting them online once or twice a week. Another 11 percent admitted to taking them once a day, and 21 percent said once or twice a day.

But why do students take selfies?  “Because I’m Beyonce,” one student claims. Who’s to say she isn’t Beyonce? Okay, technically no, this anonymous student is not the world super star pop-diva, but she fully has the right to envision herself in whatever way she wants to, doesn’t she?

Some say they take selfies because they are just fun, but most people cite their main reason as “to get that crucial angle.” We all want to look good when we put ourselves out there. And with a selfie, you have the ultimate control.

Roughly 34 percent of the students who participated in the survey do not partake in the selfie phenomenon on a regular basis, and quite frankly, the reason they shy away from doing so makes some sense.  Society constantly makes fun of teenage girls, claiming they are “self-absorbed” and consumed with snapping photographs of themselves from sunrise until sunset.

So again we ask, why take them? “’Cause I’m perfect!” one student wrote, but another exasperated student said, “Selfies promote narcissism.” Some even note how bizarre it is to see someone snapping a photo of him or herself in the middle of the street.  “I think it promotes higher self involvement, which frankly teenagers do not need more of,” said one survey respondent.

But selfies allow a girl to put herself out there in the way that she chooses as opposed to a manufactured image of what society wants her to be. So,what do you think about the selfie craze? Self absorbed, or just plain fun?