As Oxford Dictionary recently announced, the word of the year is "selfie." It's clear that the extreme use of Facebook and Instagram have made the word what it is today. Some people use the social media platforms to declare that they hate it when people take selfies, but others are quite fond of the photo phenomenon, even if it's been going on for a while.
Vampire Weekend's frontman Ezra Koenig is one of the latter. "You know, I got really excited about the word 'selfie' in 2012," he told Rolling Stone. "So when I see that it's the word of the year in 2013, I feel like, 'Tell me about some new words!'"
It may be slightly old news, but he still finds joy in it. "I'm definitely pro-selfie," he said. "I think that anybody who's anti-selfie is really just a hater. Because, truthfully, why shouldn't people take pictures of themselves? When I'm on Instagram and I see that somebody took a picture of themselves, I'm like, 'Thank you.' I don't need to see a picture of the sky, the trees, plants. There's only one you."
As for criticism about the selfie-obsessed generation, Koenig just won't have it. "There's all this bullshit about 'the younger kids today are more self-absorbed,'" he said. "It's like, give me a fucking break! I've been in nursing homes, where my grandma is. I've seen some of the most selfish people on the planet in there...And the world that these kids are born into literally could not get more selfish. The world is so fucked-up and unequal and full of assholes. You can't blame it on the younger generation."
The selfie lives on, at least for Koenig and millions of other people. Vampire Weekend will resume its Modern Vampires of the City tour on Dec. 1 in New York.
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