Nicki Minaj’s Pinkprint tour hit Brooklyn’s Barclays Center last night, and it was an excellent show! Her dancers are incredible, her vocal range is astounding, her costumes ruled, and holy shit, she brought out Lil Wayne! But aside from all that, the show was also prime selfie-taking ground. I learned so much from watching thousands of selfies pop off around me throughout the night. Namely:
1) You can never take too many selfies. Feel free to take a buttload.
2) Don’t judge other people’s selfies—especially strangers’—unless you plan to offer constructive criticism on things like lighting, angle, and framing.
3) People love to take selfies with various facial expressions to express a wide range of emotions.
4) What’s the point of having friends if they can’t take selfies for you? (Which stretches the definition of selfie, but don’t be a dick.)
5) You should also take selfies for said friends, unless you are a selfish rude-y Judy in addition to being a dick.
6) It can still be a selfie with your friends in the frame. You know what they say: the more the merrier!
7) Take selfies that give people a sense of where you are, in order to make others jealous of your life. Options include posing in front of a bank of escalators in an arena, or in front of the popcorn cart.
8) You can get better lighting in your selfie by having a friend shine his or her phone flashlight on you while you snap away.
9) If you’re smoking a joint, take a selfie of you smoking the joint.
10) If you’re drinking a Lime-A-Rita, take a selfie of you drinking the Lime-A-Rita.
11) Items 9 and 10 become doubly impactful if you are underage.
12) It’s appropriate to take a video selfie of yourself singing along or lip-syncing along when Nicki plays your favorite song. (Mine’s “I’m the Best.”)
13) SnapChat is a good medium for sharing your selfies, in that they (theoretically) don’t last forever.
14) Also, apparently there are all kinds of cool SnapChat hacks, or SnapHacks, like adding MPH or changing the color on your snap. The more you know!
15) Teens love selfies, and know all the right tricks to taking fire selfies. Teen girls especially.
16) Selfies are not just for ladies, though, and they’re not just for teens.
17) Your phone’s camera also doubles as a mirror.
18) Re-touching apps are not just accepted, they’re encouraged.
19) Apparently a thing people do at concerts is FaceTime their lame friends at home and sing along with whatever song is being performed. This is a dynamic and frankly malicious type of selfie.
20) Selfies are a valuable tool in making other people jealous of you, your life, your friends, your style, and your stunning good looks.
21) There is no right or wrong way to take a selfie.
22) Get out of my face with your telescoping selfie stick
23) No place is off-limits for selfies. Especially not the bathroom.
Image via AP