More than 90 million self-portrait pictures on Instagram currently hold the hashtag #me.
It is the third most popular hashtag there of all time. There is nothing wrong with taking a picture or a selfie. When done with style or artistic sense, it can be a nice thing. Yet the problem is, many of them have neither. They aren’t done with any thought whatsoever. On the contrary, they are done with the sole purpose of trying to garner attention. Why is that so? Why are selfies so popular?
Nowadays, it is impossible to open your social networking account and not see pictures of people with their faces up close, or people trying to look cute, etc. Sure, there was a time when this kind of pictures looked cute. But people might be overdoing it today.
Too Many Pictures without a Message
Years ago, we valued photographs. They meant something. They were capsules of captured special moments with loved ones, of new adventures, etc. But now, people are posting random photos of themselves in front of the bathroom mirror, hashtag bored. What does this say about this generation of photo-takers?
The Oxford dictionary’s word of 2013 was “selfie”.Selfies are photos that people take of themselves. In other countries, like Korea, this type of photos are called selca, which is just a shortened form of the word self-capture. Most of the time, you see selfies of women, often with their faces up close, on different social networking websites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And boy, do these pictures get attention? Of course, with the whole world today being connected to the Internet round the clock, many people are seeing the impact selfies create. This, consequently, makes more people interested in joining in. The trend gets bigger. And society becomes more interested in vain self-portraits because those are what gets attention..
YouTube Popularity at Least Requires Something
The humankind was always fascinated with capturing the elusive moment of beauty. Look no further than the famous Mona Lisa. However, only after the advancement in technology has allowed everyone to become Da Vinci did we all become hooked on taking selfies.With over eighty million users since its inception in 2010, Instagram has been providing the platform for users to alter and to show themselves off to the world.Be seen by as many as possible, be ‘liked’, and be instantly gratified – so to speak, by this instant process. Satisfying the narcissist pandemic,
It’s possible to see some pictures that you later feel were too intimate and shouldn’t have been shared with the public. That’s the sobering reality – there are so many people out there willing to throw themselves to the public just for a chance of winning the online popularity contest. Not feeling left out is another important reason why people flock to Instagram.
Likes Mean Nothing in the Long Run
Instagram is a self-perpetuating social circle, where someone becomes a celebrity simply by the whim of the masses. YouTube, for example, requires at least some uniqueness. What happens when this popularity wanes? The blow to the ego must be horrendous.Appearances aren’t everything, this is an important lesson that Instagram users seem to have forgotten.
Somehow, this generation forgot that and instead focuses only on the outward appearance. How we look, or how we are seen by others, has become malignant in the digital space. This is adding to our already malfunctioning human-to-human daily interactions. We are separating, not connecting – at least not beyond digital appearances. Taking selfies needs to be balanced with healthy, human experience of meeting others and seeing our beauty in them. Only then will we have a global population that can rest easily knowing that we will have a proper generation of kids.
Related ItemsInstagram
