The Latest Phase in Infant Development Is the Selfie Stage

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The AP reports a great trend sweeping our nation’s babies: toddler selfies. Parents say their phones are littered with selfies of their offspring, artsy (“sideways, of the corner of her eye, her eyebrow”) and otherwise. Product manufacturers have even developed apps specifically for little hands, and there’s a pillow with an iPhone case to distract toddlers as they get their diapers changed. It’s true, young toddlers are obsessed with perfecting their angles and finally remembering which side is their good one. 

According to the AP, experts speculate that taking selfies could (like the mirror stage) be part of a toddler’s development of a sense of self. Thus, the selfie stage: When the toddler first recognizes herself on the phone’s screen and understands she is an object that can be viewed from the outside, yielding the young human’s emerging psychic understanding of the I

The Selfie Stage of Infant Development