Selfies have killed more than 100 people across the world. Barring this small number, it is similar to a pandemic. A paradox where the pursuit of pleasure resulted in the death of a human being. It is akin to a man dying in the lap of a woman after attaining sexual spiritualism. In both, the common factor is the intense desire to seek extraordinary pleasure.

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A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Photographic self-portraiture flourished in the 1970s when affordable instant cameras birthed a new medium of self-expression, capturing uncharacteristically personal insight into otherwise conservative individuals. Initially popular with young people, selfies gained wider popularity over time. Selfies have also been taken beyond the realm of Earth by astronauts.

Taking a selfie has become a huge part of modern life. It has transformed the simple self-portrait into something more immediate, and has taken society by storm — it has been linked to identity, self-exploration, and narcissism.

People’s growing obsession with posting the perfect selfie is evident. Relying too heavily on this as a means of boosting self-esteem will inevitably lead to unhappiness and low self-confidence when not much praise and reciprocation is received.

Interestingly, on the one hand, man is vigorously pursuing different kinds of alternative therapies including Yoga, meditation practices, or anything close to nature in order to attain spirituality. In essence, spiritualism is the process of moving away from the self and attaining a higher cerebral evolution, while a ‘selfie’, on the other hand, is retrogression — moving towards finding one’s own identity by picturising oneself and seeking short-term pleasure from sharing the moment and desiring to keep the nostalgic memories alive.

Currently, the selfie syndrome has affected all kinds of people, the rich and poor, educated and illiterate, beautiful and not so beautiful, the white and the black alike, and it may not be surprising that this phenomenon is linked to the basic instincts of sex, hunger, and music, which are genetically wired. This instinct probably remained suppressed till the time self-portrait photographs taken with digital cameras were made possible. 

The self is the subject of one’s own experience of the phenomena of perception, emotions, and thoughts. While the self plays an important part in human motivation, cognition, behaviour, and social identity. It could keep the individual bogged down in self-centralism, blocking the external inputs for his own growth.

Life, as we live it, is modelled through various neurochemical and neuroelectrical phenomena, flooding between the self and the spiritualism passing through hell and heaven with different kinds of pleasure being perceived, experienced, and enjoyed. When the older, societal brain takes over, those who are able to evolve and exercise higher cortical evolution can, of course, go beyond to a state of long-term happiness rather than bursts of short phases of pleasure, which may provide a kick, but the possibility of danger looms.

Psychological studies conducted in 2015 among social media users suggested a relationship between selfie-posting behaviour and narcissism, which is stronger among men than women. In the same month, several scholarly publications linking excessive selfie-posting with body dysmorphic disorder were also released.

Doing anything in excess isn’t good, but as long as you are leading a balanced life and aren’t  hooked onto clicking self-portraits, there are many other ways to have fun in the digital age.

The author is a Padma Shri awardee