There's this weird trend where people, for some reason,
spontaneously take photos of themselves with their phones at any random occasion
be they in a party, a public area or even at home. This, as many of you know,
is a selfie. Pretty much everyone with a smartphone (which is pretty much
everyone who is remotely wealthy) take 'selfies' for some strange reason and I
thought "hey, since my brain is different and I don't understand this new
trend, why don't I point out all the things wrong with it?" which is what
I did and here we are!
Firstly, the name is stupid. Selfie is
something that a toddler would say when they talk about themselves. The name
alone makes a mostly harmless trend into something completely ridiculous! It's
like when you're hurt and you say 'ouchie.' It just makes you sound like a
three year old!
Secondly, the framing. This doesn't matter
as much for one person since you can easily get them into the picture but for a
crowd? There's no way you can get an entire crowd of people or the background
into one tiny little phone picture. At least, without a stick (more on that
later). Actually I take that back, you have to have steady hands in order to
get it into the frame right. If your hands shake then the picture would just
look odd.
Thirdly, the selfie stick is actually
impractical. They do fit in more people but when used in public (which is where
it is mostly used), they get in the way. People might get hit if it's wiggled
around and during a thunderstorm... well let's just say they'll go the way of
Benjamin Franklin if they're not careful.
Fourthly, the pictures themselves are
mixed. Most of them, to be fair, are actually pretty good but there are two
things that niggle me. Firstly, why do people pout (or duckface as I call it)?
It doesn't look attractive, it makes them look vain and up themselves and it
makes you look like a duck or Greedo from Star Wars thus making it look silly!
The second niggle are the use of filters. It makes the picture look better but
it does so artificially. It's like another shade of make-up, it just hides who
the person is and it sometimes feels needless as the person already looks
beautiful! (Refer to this for
my further thoughts on this).
Fifthly, people overdo it! It's fine at
home and in parties since the environment calls for one but in public places?
A) Why can't you take a normal photo, the framing will be better and the camera
shy people will be off the hook and B) if it's a place like a cinema or a
formal occasion, why do it at all? That's really inappropriate!
Lastly, why is it so ingrained to our
culture? It's used in films, TV shows (including Doctor Who, I'm sad to say),
and songs. There are even TV shows and songs ABOUT selfies such as the TV show
'Selfie' starring Karen Gillan and the song #selfie by the Chainsmokers (the
latter of which shows everything wrong with youth culture). The longevity of
the show (that being one season) sums up my main problem with selfies. It ain't
gonna last forever folks!
Since it's so ingrained in our culture,
I'm worried that when the trend dies, the pop culture references to selfies
will instantly be dated. That and people will look back at them and see how
stupid some of them looked. Also, will the next generation know about selfies?
How should I know? I can't predict the future! But maybe the trend will die
then... I know walkmans have died out and become a relic of the past. Maybe it
will... we keep evolving through trends in fashion and technology and maybe it
will be the case where phones will no longer exists and technology will evolve beyond
that! Who knows?
Selfies are harmless and the pictures
themselves aren't all that bad. But it isn't that huge a deal and there are so
many problems with it that I'm confused as to why it's so popular. Maybe I'm
missing something but the selfie is a flawed trend that probably won't last
forever.
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