Opinion: Selfies reach presidential level upon Biden’s presence on Instagram

Jacob Hollar
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:40:20 +0000
Campus, barack, instagram, joe biden, Obama, selfies, white house

Perry Parks (left) takes a selfie with President Obama during the President’s visit to Winston-Salem, N.C., on Dec. 6, 2010.
Credit: Courtesy of MCT

Guys, I told you: selfies weren’t going anywhere.

Joe Biden — THE Joe Biden, vice president of the United States of America — made an Instagram account Wednesday.

Unsurprisingly, this launched the Internet into a frenzy.

“Seriously, his first post is utter perfection,” “Time” pop culture reporter Samantha Grossman wrote Wednesday.

The shot — which features Biden in the background reading over something that I probably don’t have the clearance level to touch, and, in the foreground, his iconic Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses — promised a future filled with pictures of one of Pennsylvania’s best exports and his stylish eyewear.

And the future is now: In true Instagram fashion — seriously, this guy is a natural — one picture is never enough. Hours later, there came more posts to Biden’s account, @VP.

One of which was his first Instagram selfie, and guess who made an appearance? President Barack Obama, that’s who.

“Found a friend to join my first selfie on Instagram. Thanks for following and stay tuned,” the caption, signed “VP,” read.

Thanks, Obama!

In a tweet from Biden’s account, @JoeBiden, the picture has been given a name: “The First Selfie.”

Hear, hear. But this raises the question of what to call their next selfie, assuming there are more to come (there had better be more to come).

“The Second Selfie?”

“The second First Selfie?”

Will the Smithsonian open a “selfie museum” to preserve these portraits of our heads of state?

Regardless, as of this afternoon, the picture had received upward of 43,000 likes on Instagram and more than 15,000 retweets on Twitter.

That’s nothing compared to another famous selfie from earlier this year, however: Ellen DeGeneres’ star-studded Oscars selfie has received upward of 3.4 million retweets.

But retweets aren’t everything: What really matters is that Biden’s Instagram is probably going to feature more pictures of America’s most adorable bromance, and soon.