TASH TALK is the column from Busselton-Dunsborough Mail journalist Tasha Campbell.
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Tasha is a perfectionist, optimist and Paris obsessionist (pretty sure she made that word up).
She loves nothing more than weekends, a chai latte or two and delving into a good book only to be devastated when the book comes to an end and she realises that luckily, life is still happily carrying on around her.
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The latest social media trend of selfies alarms me.
And to tell you the truth, senseless selfies have been on my mind a lot lately.
As I type the word itself into an open word document, spell check immediately flags the fact that it does not exist in my computer’s spell checker.
This clearly displays the age of my computer, and as a journalist who is meant to be up with technology and pushing up-to-the-minute news, it is quite baffling considering it was the 2013 Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year.
Wikipedia (don’t judge me – I’m sure that at one point or another in your life you too have referred to this site as a legitimate source of information) defines a selfie as "a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone".
"Selfies are often associated with social networking like Instagram," the description continues.
"They are often casual, are typically taken with a camera held at arm’s length or in a mirror, and typically include only the photographer and as many people as can be in focus".
It carries on explaining the terms for group selfies, but we won’t delve into that today… #ellen.
Ok, I’ll admit it; I am a fan of a shameless selfie or two, but at a funeral? Or next to a homeless person? No, just no.
Can someone please tell me when it became the norm to think that this was okay?
And don’t even get me started on the no makeup selfies that have recently emerged claiming to be in support of cancer. Just donate, people!
This topic was put into perspective for me when a girl on my Instagram feed uploaded a photo of her holding her sick mother’s hand just before she passed away from cancer.
The caption read: “This is my take on a no makeup selfie for cancer, just before my mother passed away from the disease.”
This had a huge impact on me, which leads me to my next point – suicide over the perfect selfie?
When did we get so caught up on our appearance online?
Do we blame it on the celebrity selfies that filter through our social media news feeds on a daily basis?
Or perhaps the fitness selfies we find when the hashtag "fitstagram" is searched.
Whatever it is, it is certainly not healthy.
Which leads me to my cause for alarm and the sole basis of the need for this column:
#aftersex selfies.
Clearly a hash tag that needs no further explanation, but all I can think of is WHY?
Do people not understand that no person of reasonable character wants to see your post-coital glow?
Do people not understand that once that image is uploaded into the internet’s dark abyss that there is no turning back even if you hit the delete button?
Do people not understand that more and more employers are searching social media sites before they even interview potential employees for a job?
I know for a fact that I would prefer my Instagram feed to be full of images of delicious food (pardon the pun), style, inspirational quotes, family, friends and fluffy animals over other f-words which should be kept private.
#rantover.
What do you think? Do people need to be more considerate of where they snap selfies? Post your comments below.
