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Brett Moody (Taylorville, IL), Caitlyn Westfall (Macomb, IL) and Brian Kocher (Henry, IL), graduate students in the Western Illinois University College Student Personnel (CSP) Program, are some of the students who came up with and implemented the #WIUnselfie Movement project. According to the CSP student group, the mission of the WIUnselfie Movement is to develop a culture of positive community built upon meaningful connections through social media. The student group responsible for the project aims to reverse selfie culture by promoting recognition of others through accountability and awareness of often overlooked qualities, achievements and good will at Western.
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#WIUnselfie Project Promotes Making the World a Better Place, Giving Back

December 2, 2014

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MACOMB, IL — The season of giving has begun, and in fact, today is known by many as "Giving Tuesday." (The event, denoted on social media with the hashtag #GivingTuesday, is the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the retail realm.) One way Western Illinois University students have used their skills to give back this semester is through the "WIUnselfie" movement.

While "selfie" was the Oxford word for the year last year (2013), this year, the trend has continued to be a big part of the content mix posted on social media accounts across the globe. In an effort to help reverse the "selfie culture" and shift the focus to doing something good in the world for others, a group of graduate students in Western's college student personnel (CSP) program started the "WIUnselfie" movement on the Macomb campus earlier this semester.

According to CSP master's degree candidate Caitlyn Westfall (Macomb, IL), the WIUnselfie movement came about as a project in one of her CSP courses.

"We were given the assignment by our professor, Tracy Davis, as a project in our groups dynamics class, and his charge was to 'make the world a better place.' We were not given any other context other than that. We talked for a few weeks about some things we thought could make a change in the world around us, to the Western Illinois University/Macomb community," Westfall explained. "One of our group members brought up an idea of doing something selfless, such as leaving sticky-notes with positive messages around WIU's campus. From there, another member brought up an idea he had observed in his undergraduate experience—he and his friend tried to get an 'unselfie' movement started."

Westfall said the movement helps to promote unselfish acts and recognizes the people who perform them. She noted that examples of this include such acts as holding the door open for someone behind you or paying for the person behind you in a fast food drive-through line. (Photos from the #WIUnselfie movement are posted on the group's Instagram account at instagram.com/wiunselfies, on the group's Twitter feed at twitter.com/WIUnselfies and on the group's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wiunselfiemovement.)

According to Davis, who serves as the CSP program coordinator and a professor in WIU educational and interdisciplinary studies department, his students have responded to the challenge by coming up with a creative and impactful intervention.

"The purpose of the project is to have students work together both to serve the community and learn about group dynamics through a direct experience," explained Davis, who is also the director of Western's Center for the Study of Masculinities and Men's Development. "The #WIUnselfie project provides a powerful counter-narrative to the sometimes self-absorbed, narcissistic tendencies we see in the culture today. It's inspiring that this group used technology and social media to not only interrupt these tendencies, but to also highlight people's service to others. As Mother Teresa once said, too often we forget that 'we belong to each other.'"

Read more about the #WIUnselfie movement on Western's "Beyond the Bell Tower" blog at wiurelations.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/wiunselfie-movement/ and watch the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkVrrvgSeZY.

For more information, contact Westfall at cm-westfall@wiu.edu.

Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing