Not too long ago, I was in Magic Kingdom with some of my friends for a band trip, and a few other seniors and I decided to partake in an all-you-can-eat dinner.

We had the best server ever, and he became part of our memories from the trip, so we wanted to get a picture with him. He was a young guy, so we didn’t feel embarrassed to ask, “Could we take a selfie with you?”

We got into position, ready to take the world’s best selfie, when we noticed the adults near us were giving us dirty looks. One of them offered to take the picture for us, and we complied simply because it would be awkward not to. We weren’t disturbing these adults in any way, so why were they so disgusted that we would take a selfie in their presence?

Many people, especially those older than the “selfie generation,” consider selfies vain, shallow or self-centered. For some reason, having someone else take a picture of us that day suddenly erased us of these sins.

Those who consider taking selfies a negative act need to realize that they serve the same function as normal pictures: to encapsulate memories. This doesn’t just apply to vacation pictures; having Starbucks with your sister is a memory, a hilariously-stupid-looking picture with friends is a memory and how you look just after a good haircut is a memory.

Another reason why selfies appeal to adolescents is being young is almost synonymous with having low self-esteem. Young adults are still discovering how they want to look and trying to look acceptable to their peers.

In a world filled with ways to make someone feel bad about the way they look, moments when someone feels truly good about their appearance can be hard to come by. If someone feels they look nice enough to want to take a picture of themselves and even share it with others, we shouldn’t immediately tear them down by calling them shallow. Self-centeredness is bad, of course, but self-love is not.

If you don’t like to take selfies, that’s perfectly fine. What’s not OK is people who think that puts them on a moral high ground. The holier-than-thou attitude of selfie-hating adults and teens alike needs to stop. No one is better than anyone else because of their picture-taking preferences. It’s time to let people do what makes them happy, whether that’s remember a trip, making funny faces with friends or celebrating a good hair day.