Selfie fever

Just a few years back, the word 'selfie' was unknown in the world. Oxford English Dictionary crowned 'selfie' as the word of the year (2013). It is one of the most sweeping changes in all of our modern life. Most people now carry a camera in some form with them at all time. Add in social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram you will get an insatiable need to take pictures whereever you are and with whoever. The celebration of self-portrait has given us the selfie. From the most re-tweeted Oscar selfie by Ellen DeGeneres to the controversial selfie by the US president at Nelson Mandela's memorial service, it is clear that this is the biggest and longest-lasting trend of our generation. Twitter declared 2014 as the 'Year of the Selfie'.
Literally, everybody is taking selfies these days, from children to senior citizens and it seems they are obsessed with this trend. The trend starts with a basic smart phone that has a front facing camera in it that can take a picture of you without anyone's help. However, just a picture is not done, people take many selfies repeatedly all in an attempt to find the best angle for "post-perfect" image. These days posting a selfie is more like a showoff. The most credible way to promote your relevance rests in the number of "likes" on your selfie. The more likes you get on your selfie the more popular you are. Selfiesare more about how confident you are about yourself and how good you look. But just a picture of you does not make a perfect selfie, it is what is behind you or with you that matters-- such as taking a selfie with a celebrity, or a group of friends, or beautiful scenery etc.  Some say it is a form of art where one tries to grab the attention of others with the picture and notifies his/her existence on social media, others say it is more like a competition. However, unlike competitions, some people are so obsessed with the trend that their day starts and ends with selfies. When in restaurants, you will literally find everyone taking selfies with their friends or family members, with the food, even the waiter. If by any chance they find a mirror in the washroom, they will spend half of the time in the washroom taking selfies. They tend to capture every moment of the day with a selfie.  
The selfie obsession can be explained with the individual being self-absorbed and narcissistic. Individuals with this type of behaviour obtain happiness through the number of "likes" they receive on each selfies. "Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or attention-seeking social dependence that raises the damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't specter of either narcissism or very low self-esteem," said Pamela Rutledge in ‘Psychology Today’. Narcissism is becoming a big problem in our digital era. Online demonstrations of narcissism can be little more than a self-presentational strategy to recompense for very low and fragile confidence. However, when these efforts are rewarded through likes and comments it results in strengthening self-absorbed delusions. Doctors believe that in the future such narcissistic behaviour can cause mental disorders and especially to those who lack self-confidence.
So how does this trend strive forward? In fact, there are three reasons why people take selfies: Self-absorption, social connection and art. If you think about it, this is not really a new idea. Self-portraits have been around since the paintbrush or maybe before that. The moral is that we all want to beloved. However the obsession begins as an innocent habit. Being perpetually needy, depressed, anxious, and narcissist, the person seeks constant attention from others and the emotional void of such person is fixed by excessive exposure on social media.The emotional intelligence of the person falls flat and his/her social media platform is flooded with unnecessary and inappropriate selfies.  In the last few years, there were thousands of selfies that ended up in creating a huge buzz in the media. Unfortunately most were taken during an inappropriate moment - the images showed selfies during funerals, with homeless people, during a riot, strikes, fire breakout and even during earthquakes.
Just a few days back, the most popular wrestler and actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson established a Guinness World Record for taking selfies. He managed to take 105 selfies within three munities with his crazy fans in a movie premiere. Craziness such as this influences young generation in taking more and more selfies. Taking selfies has become so common these days that it is now uncommon when someone does not. Selfie obsession of this generation has turned into an entire industry. Smart phone manufacturers and mobile operators too influence this obsession or trend. This trend has grown so vast that smartphone manufacturers are obsessed with how to integrate a better camera into their phones with every new model. Manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, HTC etc. are putting forwardthe selfie taking capability of their phones in advertising.
To conclude, be sure that selfie is never a way to elevate your self-esteem and take your selfie more carefully so that it contains an art. Select the place, time and occasion of your picture more thoughtfully. Allow some moments to stay to you instead of rushing to make the moment selfie-perfect. Do take and post nice selfies but limit it if it is turning into your obsession.
The writer is a final year student of Business Administration at University of Derby, United Kingdom, shaikat.barca@gmail.com