Apple adds selfie section to iTunes App Store
New "Sharing Selfies" section caters to the broad needs of people who feel the urge take photos of themselves and share them with others.
The selfie phenomenon appears to have won a certain measure of legitimacy from Apple.
Apparently geared toward expediting the satisfaction felt by many people when they take photos of themselves and share them with others, the company on Thursday added a special section to its iTunes App store devoted to apps that cater to the need to selfie. Mixed in with popular selfie apps such as Snapchat and Justin Bieber's Shots, the "Sharing Selfies" section also includes selfie diary app Picr and selfie portrait-editing app Facetune.
The section's selection is available on both the mobile and desktop versions of the Apple App Store for iOS devices.
While the idea of taking pictures of oneself has been around almost as long as cameras themselves, the term selfie has only been traced back to 2002, according to research conducted by Oxford English Dictionaries, which bestowed word of the year honors on the term in 2013. "If it is good enough for the Obamas or the pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year,"
Oxford said in explaining its decision.The phenomenon has exploded in popularity recently, capturing everything from the spotlight at the Oscars to random encounters with homeless people and even the aftermath of near tragedies.