College Course in Selfies

The Week is reporting on another one of those classes that seem to have been dreamed up in order to horrify parents who are spending big bucks to send their kids to college. Indiana University Northwest communications professor Eve Bottando is devoting an entire class this fall to selfies, telling the Chicago Tribune, "People think selfies aren't worthy of nuanced conversations, and they are. It's an excellent teaching moment." The 400-level class will discuss research being done on selfies, as well as the questions they raise about our society.

The Week noted that this isn't the only college selfie course out there, citing a freshman class at the University of Southern California that focused on what selfies say about our ethnic, gender, sexual and class identities. What questions do you think selfies raise about our society, and do you think selfies are worthy of a whole semester's worth of "nuanced Conversations"? And finally to parents: what would your reaction be to your college-aged son or daughter taking a course on selfies?