This research was designed to explore the reasons and motives behind the selfie practice of Indonesian young adults. Selfie is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone and uploaded to a social media website. Selfie practice has become a phenomenon as the number of selfie photos has grown rapidly over the fast growth of social networking and smartphone use. It is important to understand why people choose to upload their selfie photos and whether this practice of selfie has a widespread impact on individual’s identity building.
In-depth interview is chosen as the method to gather information from Indonesian social media users to answer the research questions. Through analysis on the responses provided by ten interviewees, it can be concluded that they take selfie as a self-expression and to record memorable events. This study also found that technology plays an important role in selfie practice, the smartphone culture has bring its user to maximize the camera functions and photo editing tools to posts selfies. In addition, respondents also perceived selfie practice a performance because selfie allows them to express themselves to their friends in social media. Furthermore, when their social media friends respond to their selfies, it has an impact on their feelings, hence constructing their identity.
The results of this study provides an understanding for future explorations for researches in the field of social science related to identity construction through self-presentation and social media use in a rapidly changing, communication environment. It is important to continue research in the area of selfies
