Actor James Franco likes taking selfies. Like you, it fuels his self-described Instagram addiction. But while his selfies get lots of love from his more than 1 million Instagram followers, he also faces fervent flack for being the photographer of his own face.
Franco, 35, penned a revealing article in The New York Times, explaining why selfies are important to celebrities and what the behavior says about our culture:
But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems to get attention. And attention seems to be the name of the game when it comes to social networking. In this age of too much information at a click of a button, the power to attract viewers amid the sea of things to read and watch is power indeed. It’s what the movie studios want for their products, it’s what professional writers want for their work, it’s what newspapers want — hell, it’s what everyone wants: attention. Attention is power. And if you are someone people are interested in, then the selfie provides something very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible. ... We all have different reasons for posting them, but, in the end, selfies are avatars: Mini-Me’s that we send out to give others a sense of who we are. I am actually turned off when I look at an account and don’t see any selfies, because I want to know whom I’m dealing with. In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, “Hello, this is me.”
In a year when "selfie" became Oxford Dictionaries' international word of the year (its frequency in the English language increased by 17,000% since 2012), Franco's commentary gives us an intimate account into the mindset of famous people who photograph themselves.
Franco also cautioned against only posting selfies, saying, "for every photo of a book, painting or poem, I try to post a selfie with a puppy, a topless selfie or a selfie with Seth Rogen, because these are all things that are generally liked." Mix it up, basically.
Still, Franco is often called the "selfie king." In one recent Instagram photo, below, Franco is taking a selfie of his shirtless body and unsmiling face in a bathroom. His caption reads, "All the kids are doing it." And it's true. Kids and adults are taking selfies in bathrooms, in dangerous places and even at funerals.

In another photo, Franco flips off the camera. The picture is paired with the caption "F*** you selfie Friday," spawning a handful of copy cats who quickly replicated his middle-finger selfie.
Maybe selfies are contagious like yawns seemingly tend to be.
Regardless, with the growing popularity of such photo-sharing apps as Instagram and Snapchat as well as general social networks with photo-uploading capabilities (Facebook and Twitter), the selfie trend isn't leaving our culture anytime soon, if ever.
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BONUS: 16 Legendary Selfies of 2013
A @billclinton selfie from #CGI2013 as we sat down to talk for an upcoming @WIRED story. http://t.co/0P4YjZa6vY
Image: Mashable composite; James Franco