It's two years since the Oxford English Dictionary made 'selfie' its word of the year. Since then, 'selfie' has been used to describe the 'selfie generation' and recently, the 'selfie election'. Aimee Fuller is a 23 year old snowboarder who competed at last year's Winter Olympics - she explores the selfie phenomenon and asks whether it really defines her generation. Aimee explains how social media is part and parcel of what she does as an athlete, helping her to communicate with her fans - and the selfie is an important element of that.

The programme explores the broader significance of the selfie as a form of photography. What sort of a photograph is the selfie and what do photographers make of it? Katrina Sluis from the Photographers Gallery in London puts it into the context of self portraits.

Why have younger people taken to the selfie with such enthusiasm and what does that tell us about their social attitudes? Economist writer, Jeremy Cliffe explains how the selfie generation use social media and why.

Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4. Show less