Pop Culture dictionary
.5 selfie
or 0.5 selfie [ point fahyv sel-fee ]
What does .5 selfie mean?
A .5 selfie (said as point five selfie) is a selfie taken with a smartphone’s ultra-wide angle lens.
Like a selfie, a .5 selfie is taken by oneself of oneself (and sometimes also with others), but the resulting photo usually features an unusual angle or is distorted in some way due to the effect created by the ultra-wide angle lens. This effect is thought to be part of the appeal of taking .5 selfies.
In addition, some people consider .5 selfies to be more spontaneous or casual than typical selfies because the wide-angle lens is typically on the back of a smartphone camera, meaning that the person (or people) taking the photo can’t see what it looks like until after they take it. (In this way, .5 selfies are often thought to be a way of avoiding the curated perfection of a meticulously framed selfie.)
Example: I only take .5 selfies because I like to subvert society’s beauty standards.
Where does .5 selfie come from?
In the term .5 selfie, the .5 is a reference to the fact that the ultra-wide angle lens on smartphone cameras is often labeled as .5x or 0.5x in reference to the field of view (or “zoom” level).
In practice, .5 selfies have been possible since at least 2019, when some popular smartphone models added an ultra-wide angle lens to their cameras.
Both the trend and the term became popular in 2022, when mostly younger users of social media platforms such as Instagram began posting .5 selfies. The trend is often attributed to factors that are seen as part of a reaction to the trend of attempting to take a “perfect” selfie, namely the appeal of posting photos with unusual angles and distorted features and the fact that most .5 selfies can’t be viewed until after they’re taken.
Examples of .5 selfie
Who uses .5 selfie?
Like other selfies, .5 selfies are often shared on social media. In particular, .5 selfies emerged as a trend among younger social media users, often as a way to create photos that are intentionally distorted or less meticulously framed.
.5 selfie shots pic.twitter.com/ya2Dh1zOaf
— trisha ☻︎ (@_trishatuazon) July 10, 2022
my mom’s attempt at a 0.5 selfie pic.twitter.com/JjOWtfBYHj
— chloe 🩻 (@chloe_malana_) July 17, 2022
made my 20-yr-old brother teach me how to take a 0.5 selfie pic.twitter.com/8dPsdeZvYw
— Gerrit De Vynck (@GerritD) July 10, 2022
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of .5 selfie like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of .5 selfie that will help our users expand their word mastery.