Self-focus

Me, Myself and I is the most base and prevalent of human desires. Nothing feeds it better than the invention of the century "Selfie". Wikipedia defines "A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick". Seeing oneself has always been irresistible but ease and reach of this free pastime has made this human virus reach an epidemic proportion. The rules of self privacy, self respect, and self denial are all old fashioned, hypocritical and irrelevant. In today's "open" world freedom means free to act, click, speak, look and show "whatever".
Social media mediums like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat in particular are invitations to posts. The biggest and the first post is the DP picture of the person. That has become the first self-show that gets immaculate attention by posters. Poses, styles, colours, gestures, backgrounds, all are a matter of great attention and concern for people. Comments, likes, views all start with the DP profile changes. This picture is the first impression and the advertisement that will attract further viewing. Facebook is perhaps the literal expression of selfies, ie it is a book for the face, or at least people take it religiously by updating it after every few minutes, if not seconds. The desire to inform the world about every move we make is insatiable. It is not just activities or events but non-events like google maps showing the airport you are sitting on and the restaurant you are entering are assumed to be matters of high interest for the world you interact with.
However the growth, frequency and repetition of selfies exceeds the speed of light. Last year over 25 billion selfies were posted on Social Media. The biggest segment suffering from this click slip 'Selfie-itis' are the millennial youth who are born selfie smart on a smartphone. However, the older segments are also infected with this virus. 55 percent of social media selfies come from millennials, but Gen X follows with 24 percent and baby boomers with 9 percent. Considering the average lifespan of a person is 27,375 days, an average millennial is expected to take 25,700 selfies during their lifetime. That's close to one selfie daily which seems ridiculously low but then there are large segments in the world that are still not carriers of this virus due to non availability of the cellular phone. Some new social media platforms are made for selfies, 74 percent of Snapchat photos are selfies. Likewise 1,000 selfies are posted on Instagram every second. TIME magazine reported the Philippines is the selfie capital of the world. Makati City produces more selfies per capita than any other city in the world, with Manhattan and Miami following.
Of course, all selfie takers are not equal. Some are occasional and some are routiners. Some are tasters and some are addicts. Some are individualists and some are groupies. The American Psychiatric Association classifies the selfie syndrome in three categories:
--Borderline selfitis: taking photos of one's self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media.
--Acute selfitis: taking photos of one's self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media.
--Chronic selfitis: Uncontrollable urge to take photos of one's self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day.
The chronic patients of this syndrome take extreme measures to create angles that are unique. The selfie stick is another accessory that helps increase the panoramic view of capturing thousands of objects in the background. The desire to have a selfie with the highest views, longest comments and maximum shares has reached a dangerous and obsessive level. Consider this statement: more people die taking selfies than of shark attacks, 20 countries have reported deaths due to selfie taking adventures, and guess which two countries top the list. Yes, India and then Pakistan. The desire to be perched in the most dangerous places and the obliviousness to oncoming dangers due to creating the perfect angle have caused most deaths in the sub-continent.
The human need for self-focus has been discussed in psychology as Narcissism. The ability to see just and solely yourself by far exceeds many other desires. However when it reaches what is known as the ego portrait status that is when it becomes a problem. This chronic status is almost equal to what in psychology is called ADD ie attention deficit disorder. Many studies prove that people who are insecure or lack confidence fill up this gap by taking self-portraits to reassure their own insecurities. However that does not mean that those who are secure do not indulge in this hobby. It is just amazing how much of an essential chore it has become for everybody to be relevant in today's social behaviour.
Social media has many virtues but is not short of vices. Where it has connected the unconnected and made the unspoken heard, it has also reduced many things to "face value". The ability of people to pose and then photoshop pictures has created more dissatisfaction in terms of personal and interpersonal issues. Due to photoshop and colouring tools nearly every body else seems more beautiful and happier than you. The cool, happy, loving poses have created depression and comparison in many low self-esteem individuals. The cure for selfitis is not to restrict the number of selfies taken but the awareness and understanding that what you are will always break through from what you look and pose. Thus behind this face and book may be another face and another story. As the saying goes "Behind every selfie there are at least 39 cuts that did not make it". [email protected]