Selfie cover art

Selfie

How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us

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Selfie

By: Will Storr
Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
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About this listen

We live in the age of the individual.

We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture's image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We're told that to be this person, you just have to follow your dreams, that our potential is limitless, that we are the source of our own success.

But this model of the perfect self can be extremely dangerous. People are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. Unprecedented social pressure is leading to increases in depression and suicide. Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell?

To answer these questions, Selfie takes us from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of hyperindividualistic neoliberalism in which we live now.

It tells the extraordinary story of the person we all know so intimately - our self.

Exclusive to the audiobook, Selfie includes a unique 15-minute interview with the author, Will Storr, and reader, Jack Hawkins.

©2017 Will Storr (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio Anthropology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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Critic reviews

"Fascinating." ( The Times)
"Thoughtful and engaging." ( Guardian)
"Brilliant." ( Evening Standard)
"Electrifying." ( Financial Times)
"Approaching genius." ( Sunday Times)
All stars
Most relevant  
I would thoroughly recommend this book, it is a thought provoking and thoroughly human assessment of the current state of society and what could have been the channels that brought us here.

Enlightening

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This book was not what I expected, it was so much more. The individual stories, the history, the relevance to our lives. I'm greatful for the huge amount of research that was put into this book. Didn't know I needed to know it, now I feel it should be taught in schools. I binge listened to the smooth narration and was truly sad when it finished.

Amazing

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A very interesting and readable book. I can see how ideas from the 60s have had an impact on how I brought up my children and even how Trump turned out the way he is. Where is it going to end?

An eye opener!!

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Exceptional performance of a beautifully written and thought-provoking book. Was a pleasure to listen to and would definitely recommend.

excellent

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I sojourned into this book having watched The Social Dilemma thinking it would be about the dangers of, well, selfie culture and insta-fame and to an extent it is. But it is also so much more, the sheer breadth of topics covered from social psychology, philosophy, history all help to couch a very salient argument against the modern ideology of the self as hero and the increasingly bitter narcissism that it breeds.

Not what I had expected

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I really enjoyed this book. It's well written, well-read and really made me think about myself and others

Very thought provoking

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Thank you Will Storr for writing this book. There is a lot to think about here for all of us living in the modern age. Will change how you see yourself and others, in positive and honest way

Thought Provoking and Profound

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An interesting book but, like others who have written reviews, I wish I had read it instead. Even an automated voice narrating this story may have proved less torturous in places.

The problem is not simply that the narrator does accents - it’s that his enthusiasm is undiminished by the fact he has no natural talent for them. From one chapter to the next, I groaned inwardly whenever he began quoting a new interviewee who had the misfortune of being based anywhere except the UK. Even then, I suspect on at least one occasion he chose to introduce a Scottish accent when nothing in the text justified it. It made whole swathes of the audiobook almost impossible to concentrate on as the narrator blundered his way through barely intelligible approximations of American, Australian and Irish accents.

His tiresome dedication to his art had some limitations, however, as I noticed with some amusement that he did not attempt to do an accent for a Korean professor interviewed in the book. In truth, it would have hardly been any less crude (or at times inappropriate) than his other performances. This perhaps exposes a blindspot suffered by audiobook producers - would this kind of excruciatingly stereotypical accent, performed so poorly, be appropriate in other contexts? Given the answer is clearly no, it should raise questions about why it’s allowed to persist at all. Particularly when it makes a good book almost unlistenable.

Why the accents, why?

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Jack's voice is really easy listening and Will Storr' s investigations and story is really insightful. definitely made me think differently and readjust my expectations on myself!

really insightful

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As an introvert with low agreeableness I found this an enjoyable listen and many of the authors self reflections resonated with me.
Jack Hawkins does an excellent job at narration and I’d like to think the message in the book will help most people go along their way with a little more understanding of why this world is so self obsessed these days.

An interesting insight into our self obsessed reality

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