‘Toddlers Are Delighted With Themselves’
Reportedly, the front-facing cellphone camera was originally intended to be a way for business colleagues to teleconference one another while they were working in separate locations. Introduced in Japan in 1999 and the United States four years later, it was not initially a widely heralded innovation. And its inventors probably did not anticipate that it would inspire a new genre of photography—the selfie—or become a beloved plaything for toddlers all over the globe.
Many parents today know what to expect when they wrest their smartphones from their young children, who have been entertaining themselves in their car seat, or waiting for a snack, or playing nearby while their sibling takes a bath: a camera roll full of oddly avant-garde, poorly focused, poorly framed self-portraits. Toddler selfies are a
