Evolution isn’t only for the living… ideas also evolve and not just restructure themselves but emerge in forms that no one could possibly have imagined. Take the humble selfie. It has ‘I, me, and my’ stuffed into it and must have begun in pre-historic times with some aggressive ego-maniacal stone-wielding bully telling another meek-looking cave-artist, ‘Hey you, draw me first or die!’
The concept of having your face in some sort of permanence has travelled from those pre-historic moments to selfie-sticks and long-armed humans making enough space for that short moment when a tap on a screen captures the moment with your face in an emotional trance!
‘Come on, we know all this’… I can distinctly hear some voices complaining and before this murmur becomes a cacophony, let me hastily add that I am going one step ahead of what you know.
‘Really?’
‘Yes, I am going to tell you about the path that even the word ‘selfie’ has taken to travel to another new word ‘selfido’.’
So SELFIE is just one picture clicked of self by a person and obviously when this becomes an obsession, the output is SELFI… that is, multiple selfies. This is the stage when SELFIDENCE takes over and here I need to digress a bit to add that this confidence in selfie-clicking needs not just a liking for shooting yourself but is all about the capability of the gadget or device in your hands. It is the technology behind the smartphone processor, the image-taking ability of the lens used, the resolution of the display, and all the little technological synapses inside that help you click a selfie that will make a great impact. Let me share a video here that sets out to prove that a selfie can do a lot more! Watch this heart-warming video to know how a #ZenfoneSelfie helped people get closer to their loved ones:
And now that you have seen the video, let me reveal the final step in this selfie journey… the SELFIDO. This is the ultimate where you start making short videos of yourself in various mundane as well as not-so-routine stances. Well, it isn’t for nothing that concepts like dubsmash have made their appearance now.
This evolution has not been without its share of other selfie-oriented words and the other variations like selfie-absorbed, selfie-addict, selfie-aholic, selfie-centered, selfie bombs, selfiecidal, selfie-conscious, and even selfie-dragons are already existing to make the classification come with its own sense of complexity! But listen I find it mighty interesting and have always hailed the arrival of this new concept.
I am sure this is one concept that is here to stay… I mean, it was always there as I have told you about its existence in pre-historic times. There were ages where people got themselves painted by artists or have got sculptures chiselled out. And if you think this kind of celebrity-affiliation is missing, you have probably not heard of the story that a friend once told me.
This friend has a massive collection of selfies with stars of all sorts – cricketers, politicians, sadhus, actors, writers, and even poets – and all he does is what he did when he had his selfie clicked by our PM Mr Modi himself, ‘Sir, I am short but I’d love a selfie with you. Can you please click one with me on my camera?’ Surprisingly, this trick always works and he now declares proudly, ‘These are selfies with me but clicked by a celebrity.’ So who says that a common selfie cannot have an edge?
Though the word selfie-overdose must have already found its way into our new-age jargon, I’m sure the trend for selfie is not one that is going to fade away soon… well, not until our smartphones keep getting smarter!
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#DonateaSelfie
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Arvind Passey
31 October 2015
