What is The Ultimate 21st Century Symbol of Vanity ?

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.’ – Robert A.Heinlein

Do you want to feel loved? Do you want people to acknowledge your presence?

Go ahead, click a selfie, post it on a social media and boom !! Your phone will start buzzing with incessant notifications, ‘ X liked your picture’ , ‘Y commented on your picture’ , ‘Z shared your picture’ and then you will feel wanted. Next thing, you’re glued to your phone for the next two days just because you’re too busy keeping a tab on the number on likes. Phew! That’s a task, indeed.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term ‘selfie’, it is a photo taken by self, of the self. After which it’s posted online, typically via social media.

So the next time when your mother asks you the reason behind that constant smile, you should proudly tell her that you’ve been ‘liked’ by x number of people’. But, have you decided a ‘prime time’ to post that picture, when most of the people are active on any social platforms? Stay put, while I share a ‘social secret.’

#Throwbacksaturday, I was partying with a couple of friends. Some girls while dancing on the floor were having tequila shots to the beats of Bollywood and they somehow manged to click some selfies.  A click here and a click there and a group selfie. Suddenly, I see all of them on their phones posting the  pictures on their personal Instagram accounts. I couldn’t restrain myself from eavesdropping on their conversation. One girl said, ”The best time to post a picture is 9:30pm and you’ll get the maximum likes”. So, when I personally did use the apt time to post a selfie, IT DID WORK! Then I ended up watching my ‘self worth’ rise every hour.

Technology has taken a toll over today’s generation. New and improved  smartphones are launched every second day specially with effective front camera so as to improve the quality of the selfies. Moreover, there was a time when we knew only of the walking sticks until we were introduced with the concept of ‘Selfie sticks’ .

So, what are the possible reasons behind this obsession with selfies?

Earlier pictures were meant for preserving good memories but now, they are being used as mere tools to prove something you are not able to otherwise. A selfie is a product of an act of self obsession along with an attempt to show off that perfect jawline . I do not say that advancement in technology is bad but the ineffective use of technology is foolish.

You’ll be ready to scale even The Mount Everest in order to capture a perfect selfie. (Or a ‘falling selfie’, maybe). And it doesn’t end there, we have specific names for every selfie, ‘tasty food selfie’ , ‘Saturday night selfie’ , ‘Gym selfie’ , ‘Boyfriend Selfie’ , ‘family selfie’ and the list goes on. People are now living their lives in order to prove something to others. Selfie plays a major role in making it  possible.  The whole idea of clicking a selfie is that we no longer need a mirror but a sign of DOUBLE REASSURANCE from the society.

I know that selfies don’t always mean that we’re self-obsessed, but let’s say that in most cases it does. So what happens when we fall in love with ourselves?  Maybe we start judging others more stringently and create certain standards to which we expect others to match up to. If not, we outcast them . A selfie is more like a vehicle used to raise your self esteem. What started as a social fad, has now become an addiction amongst the youngsters. In an era, where one should be running away from material addictions, a selfie is just an addition to the ever growing list.