Don’t Lose Yourself In A Selfie

Ever lost the moment because you were too caught up trying to click selfies?

You planned for months to get here. A much-frequented destination where the rush doesn’t permit you to savour the view for more than a few moments. The vantage venue cannot accommodate large crowds, so security and volunteers ensure the current set of visitors exit in less than a minute to allow the next set to step in.

Why would someone not enjoy such a short-lived experience by being fully present in the moment? Why not feel the surroundings, and let your senses soak in the experience rather than lose precious opportunity trying to click photos?

Imagine missing the penalty shootout where Sunil Chhetri scores the tie-breaking goal because you were too busy trying to take a selfie with the football match in the backdrop. Or lose sight of a last-ball match-winning six by Virat Kohli in a hurry to include him behind you in the picture.

Bizarre, don’t you think?

Clicking selfies are now commonplace everywhere, whether it is a vacation or amid some thrill, adventure, or action. Why sacrifice the moment for the future? There may not even be a future if you are not careful.

It is the pursuit of a perfect selfie that sometimes turns fatal. A selfie can turn into a ‘self-die’ if we are not careful.

Death by selfie is now common. Here are a few recent statistics:

• Six members of a family drowned and died in the Ramdaha waterfall in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district a month ago. Eyewitnesses said that the incident happened when two women in the family went down to the waterfall to take a selfie. In an attempt to save them from drowning, the other family members jumped into the water, and within moments they drowned too.
• In July this year, an attempt to take a selfie cost two people their lives near Karjan river in Gujarat. Despite the administration issuing an alert asking people to stay away from the rivers, they were taking selfies. Due to the heavy inflow of water in Karjan dam, the authorities had opened the gates, causing a swell in the river that swept them in the strong current.
• In the same week, a 29-year-old man fell off the cliff in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district while trying to take a selfie.
• Six months ago, three engineering students drowned in the sea at St. Mary’s Island in Udupi after one of them slipped into the water while taking a selfie. Locals say that the other two may have drowned in a bid to save him.
• In the same week, a newly married couple along with a friend drowned in a river while clicking selfies in Maharashtra’s Beed district.
• A few days later, a 16-year-old girl who had gone on a trek to Gorakhgad in Murbad died after falling into a valley, about 500 ft deep, while taking a selfie.

I was aghast to learn how a young life was lost, mauled to death to get a selfie with a wounded bear a few years ago.

Why would you do such a thing?

A few reasons come to mind:

• To share it on social media and/or with their friends and family. The desire to be liked, commented on, and further shared – hoping for virality – is greater for selfie enthusiasts than any sensory experience at that moment.
• To show off to others that you-have-been-there-and-done-that.
• The pressure to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ – if she/he can do it, so can I.

Almost all present-day families have at least one nuclear or joint family member who is crazy about selfies. The realisation that a selfie can turn life-threatening either does not cross their mind or the thrill of the click-and-share prevents every other thought at that moment.

A selfie per se is not a bad thing. It comes in handy when you wish to include everyone present in the picture. Or when there is no one else around who can click. But it has become much abused, where people go to ridiculous lengths to get themselves clicked.

It’s okay for hard-core photography enthusiasts to capture key moments with their lens. The majority just follow what they see others do.

There are other mindless examples.

Recently, I was on a plane to Chennai. My co-passengers were a married couple who couldn’t seem to get enough of each other. Between the two, they clicked at least a few hundred pictures. Yes, I am not joking. Think about it, how many different angles can you possibly get when you are seated in a moving aircraft? I felt guilty getting into their frame inadvertently during some of their selfies. But I don’t think it bothered them.

As an aside, I also noticed they spoke more with each other in two and a half hours than I have spoken to my wife in 17 years.

Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but you get the drift, right?

I usually catch up on either reading or sleeping during a flight. Their loud blabber did not help me achieve either. Not to intrude into their public display of affection, I became desperate to catch a few winks of sleep. I was conscious, even guilty of violating their privacy unintentionally. They didn’t care.

Did I just mention privacy? In a public place? Sounds wrong, right? Not that my co-passengers were seeking it.

Sorry for drifting, I got carried away in the last few paragraphs. But you – my dear reader – should not.

Obsessing about selfies is unhealthy, even dangerous. Use it where it’s required. Tools are made to make life easier. Not to lose the moment. Or yourself in them.