CIT bids to snap record for mass ‘selfie’
Organisers confirmed that despite the awful weather, 229 students turned up and turned their smartphone cameras on themselves for the fundraiser at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) yesterday.
A selfie — the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year last year — is a photograph you take of yourself, usually for upload to a social networking site. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and Cheryl Cole, some in various states of undress and some of whom focus their cameras on various parts of their bodies, have all hit the headlines in recent months for their efforts. US president Barack Obama caused a stir when he took a ‘selfie’ with David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning- Schmidt at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in December.
But there is no world record yet for the most amount of people taking a selfie at the same time.
And while celebrities seem to have no selfie rules, there were very strict rules governing the style which was allowed in the record-breaking attempt.
Students had to be seated and they couldn’t put their arms around the person next to them to ensure that the selfie was a full portrait of each participant’s face.
Organisers were busy last night collating the paper, photographic and video evidence for submission to the officials at the Guinness Book of Records.
They hope that their attempt will be officially rubber-stamped within a few weeks, giving them the title as world record holders for the world’s first and largest mass selfie event.
The entire event was organised by first-year business studies economics students at CIT.
Sinead Huskisson, a lecturer in economics in the Department of Management and Enterprise at CIT, said they are really hoping this will be a first.
“But you may ask what’s this got to do with economics?” she said.
“Well, in macroeconomics, measures of a country’s wealth are examined and it has been noticed that, despite recession and austerity measures, Ireland is a rich country relative to many others.
“The charity that will benefit from this event will be based in a country with a GDP per capita lower than that of Ireland.”
Three charities in India, Haiti and Kenya have been shortlisted to benefit.
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