Why I Hate #Selfies

I am running along a pristine white sand beach with azure waters on the Gulf of Mexico. Quite the picture. Why would I take this picture and ruin it by putting my ugly mug in the shot?! Even more baffling is my compulsion to then share this picture with my social network, some of which I know very well, some of which I see every day and some of which I may not have met or seen in a decade. Why would all these folks want to see this?

Since when did social validation of our picture perfect lives become part of our everyday?

Since technology changed everything.

We can now chat online in real time, we can see the person we are speaking with on the other side of the world and all of this is so accessible. We don’t need a tele-presence suite to achieve this we can do it from our computers, laptops, tablets and phones. Never more have the changes in the way the world works been so evident than the picture of the Papal Inauguration. The scenario has moved on even further now as pictures and videos taken in such a situation will be broadcast across innumerable social platforms.

This is the way the world works now, and subsequently how relationships are managed. What has this got to do with Selfies? Selfies seem to be the way by which we all share what we are doing (proving we are actually there and having fun) with the people that matter to us (to a greater or lesser extent) now managed via social/technology channels. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is amazing. We can maintain friendships that the international nature of the working world has flung to different corners of the planet that would have otherwise diminished. I get to see my friends as their lives develop, families grow and see where they live and what they are doing.

Why do I hate #Selfies? Partly because I think it’s a lazy use of the English language. I see abbreviations and acronyms littering nearly all articles and this wonderful language of ours needs to be preserved. Whilst a picture speaks a thousand words, I also believe words can speak a thousand pictures if applied with the right imagination of course.

Another reason why I hate #Selfies is because to me it highlights the narcissistic society we are developing into. Obsessed with self rather than the people around us. Selfies also take away the need to stop and interact with another human being and ask them to take a photo of you. This trend highlights the ugly side of society in horrific circumstances evidenced by a minority of people taking Selfie’s at sites where dignity and decency should be preserved. I watched the news with horror, not only at the barbaric events during the hostage scene at the Lindt Café in Sydney, but also at the throngs of people outside obsessed so much with themselves that they took a Selfie whilst lives were at risk inside.

The key reason though is because I fear that whilst enabling relationships, the quality and value of those relationships will degrade to become simply transactional, web-based interactions. Relationships Matter and they need to be worked at to be maintained, not just updated with a picture of yourself doing something fun. Relationships need to be instigated, cultivated and maintained and I worry that the Selfie trend starts to erode the opportunity for those new interactions to occur.

I for one will do all I can to make sure that technology doesn’t not disrupt the truly important relationships I have, rather compliment and enable. One way I will endeavor to do this is to ask more people to take a picture for me instead of trying to extend my arm at an unnatural angle (or buy a ridiculous stick to do the job – don’t even get me started there!)