Drop That Selfie Lie, Start Living Again

Image credit: Unsplash

People are being driven to the ideals of perfection in the digital age, forgetting that we are inherently and deeply flawed and different from each other. Everyone is watching online and deriving a certain voyeuristic pleasure from our many antics.

We have been forced to look great, feel accomplished and tout our achievements listen to all and sundry who have the time to watch and listen to what we do. The mundane falls short on our trips torwards excellence online and the picture perfect helps highlight our strengths, even if that means going to great heights or lengths to get there with our smartphones that have higher definition cameras that can make reality disappear in a flash. 

We want to be like others and are being coerced to love the attention showered on us even if we are uncomfortable with living the imaginary life. 

We are ashamed to be in our skin or seek beyond measure to make people follow us on social media. We are removed from the present and do not realize the worth we bring to the real world and those around us.

There is pressure, we are easily ashamed and there is enduring guilt. Children face it from an early age. We are demanding and are relentless in our pursuit of attention which we believe will bring us long-tern happiness or short-lived joy. Flaws are not being forgiven. Failure could doom us. Everything has to be just right. Perfect, if you will. Nothing can go wrong.

Greatness is bestowed on us online and it comes easily, without the slog. Experience, talent and merit are discarded. They don’t count when looks and fake appeal make influencers out of wannabes.

We are fooled by gimmickery peddled by fools and are victims of propaganda paraded by despots and dictators. We blame the online life and social medium while failing to look deep within us. We are losing our children and their innocence as they seek instant fame on the social world they inhabit via their devices and gadget. They live parallel lives and we believe all is well with their world and ours.

We are selfish and push the selfie lie when we are called to be selfless. We are unforgiving of our frailties and tragedy awaits at every corner. It’s time to arise, awake and be wise to the ways of the real world while shedding our fake selves and avatars on social media. We are called to be human once again – to touch one another more and our smartphones less. Source: Khaleej Times, English newspaper in UAE

I read the above article in Khaleej Times last year and I felt the article really reflected my feelings, about how I have always felt about selfies. I don’t know why but somehow I don’t really like selfies. May be because I was born in a different time from now, a time when everything was so very different, a time when photos were so simple and real. They depicted the real moments we lives. Photos are all about capturing moments and beautiful memories but somewhere in this digital age we lost that touch of reality in our lives. I won’t say that there aren’t any good photos etc anymore but it’s all seems to be so made up, it doesn’t seem real all to me.

There was something like selfie but a bit different, we either had a tripod to keep the camera in steady or kept it elsewhere and clicked a picture of ourselves, that mostly happened in family photos at home when we all wanted to be in the frame at the same time and there was no one to take the photo.

Living in these times I too enjoy editing photos and videos only to some extent but there’s nothing like an unedited, beautiful photo that brings back golden memories.