Before 2013, we were unaware of the term ‘selfie’, but now everyone is not just familiar but also crazy about it. Be it a family dinner or a holiday, you can spot youngsters clicking selfies and uploading them on social networking sites instead of enjoying those moments.

This selfie syndrome is getting worse day by day, people are becoming more obsessed with themselves and are constantly seeking admiration from their social circle. They call it a selfie, but I call it narcissism. Narcissism is when people exceptionally admire their physical appearance, they end up being self-focused because they think it will get them ahead but in reality, it alienates them from everyone around.

We actually live in a society where looking cool in pictures on social media has become more important than being a genuine person. The filters have destroyed people’s vision. It is so easy and common to edit a picture with one of the vast number of photo editing apps and tools available, and so people are becoming more used to fake appearances. Psychologists termed this state as ‘dimorphic disorder’. By editing, people think they will look beautiful, while real beauty is in simplicity.

People are addicted to selfies. There have been instances when this craze for selfie has led to some very dangerous situations and serious outcomes, and some have even died while taking selfies. Such cases are called ‘selfie suicide’. There was a case when a Pakistani girl was killed while posing for a selfie with a train that knocked her down. The tragic incident took place at a station in Khanewal’s Faridabad area, in Punjab, as the girl was waiting for a train enroute to Rawalpindi from Karachi. In a similar incident in India, a 21-year-old engineering student died when he was hit by a speeding train while trying to take a selfie in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. In California, the US, a woman slipped and fell to her death while taking a selfie next to a waterfall.

A study noted that 259 people across the world died while taking a selfie between 2011 and 2017. In 2016, Pakistan took second place in the global killer-selfie rankings with nine deaths, according to a study published by US-based Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi.

Just for getting attention and to impress others, people put their lives at risk to take selfies. If you really want to impress, do something like Arfa Karim and Abdul Sattar Eidhi, just to name two people who the world respects and is impressed by. The whole world remembers them even after they are gone.

There is nothing wrong with taking a selfie sometimes, but the obsession it has become for people is definitely wrong. This self-obsession has also led to some people developing an inferiority complex since they are becoming very conscious about their looks in their quest to get a perfect selfie. They compare their selfies with those of their friends, and they often feel dissatisfied with their appearance. And, after posting a selfie, the question they wait to see answered is, “What’s my value?” Every ‘like’ they receive, in their mind, makes them worth a little more. To increase their likes and comments, they add unknown people as friends and this is one of the reasons that results in cyber bullying. It is very easy for anyone to download your picture and misuse it by editing it and posting it anywhere.

Therefore, to get rid of all these disastrous effects of selfies, we should keep a balance because excess of everything is bad. So don’t become a part of this selfie craze.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 30th, 2020