The silent war with selfie addiction

It was a beautiful evening, last Easter Sunday to be precise. The sun was shining, and lots of activities were going on at the beautiful newly opened Agodi Gardens. There were lots of children making happy noise at the playground section. At the zoo, adults were quiet and looked on with jaws dropped as a lion and lioness in full public glare engaged in coital activities. And somewhere in the woods, a relatively shy Indian guy in what looked like a scene from a typical Bollywood movie (but without the singing and dancing) went on his brown knees to propose to his beautiful girlfriend as a parrot squawked and imitated the lady when she said ‘Yes’.

I looked around and I said “This is fun.” I basked in the euphoria of the perfect moment until my eyes turned to another location where something quite interesting was going on.

Very close to the barricade preventing people from getting too close to the artificial fountain, children were sliding from a very high point. It wasn’t the first time I would be seeing such — I actually wished to join in the fun. What however caught my attention was a young girl, probably not older than nine, who got angry because her dad didn’t get a very good picture with his iPhone 6S as she was gliding uncontrollably downwards. She cried uncontrollably until the guy in charge of the place asked her to go back up and everyone zoomed in and focused camera lenses of different resolutions (and megapixels) on her in order not to miss any moments.

When she saw the attention on her, her pretty face lit up in smiles as she ran to her dad who in turn thanked everyone.

I strolled to the swimming pool side where I ran into two lovers that I personally know. They paid an entry fee of NGN1 000 each to gain access to the exclusive area so I didn’t want to distract them with presence. So I put on my sunshade glasses and assumed a sitting position that did not attract attention – although they got my full attention.

They walked round the pool area, marveled at the perfection. The lady said ‘This is beautiful’ severally, and before you could say Memeburn, the lady began to pose with a duck face while the guy took her pictures with a Samsung Galaxy Note. They switched places and subsequently came together to take selfies that went on social media almost immediately. I could say this because I follow them both and I get notified when they post new stuff. Accompanying the pic, the woman wrote “Swimming with bae.”

Needless to say the picture got several likes and comments from those who were jealous of the fun the lovers were having even though they left the pool moments after taking the picture without even touching or entering the pool they paid to use.

Then I looked around me, almost everyone, including the staff, was taking pictures. A policeman with his gun swung on one side actually had his camera flash on and was going from one point to another in the garden taking pictures.

I wanted to call his attention to the battery life-sapping camera flash but I changed my mind when I remembered from experience that you don’t want to be the guy that tells a Nigerian security officers he is doing something wrong.

Blame Mark
It is interesting to note that this chronic preference for taking pictures over living in the moment is not only restricted to Nigerians or Africans, it is a global phenomenon. From visitors to the River Nile to those that successfully summit Everest, to the selfies taken at highly dangerous places and high heights, addiction to taking pictures is at an all-time high in this generation. Who should we blame? Mark Zuckerberg.

These days, when two people say they are going out, they seem to be saying ‘We are going out to take pictures of cool places and make our friends to become jealous of our amazingly perfect lives.’

So they move from one place to another — sometimes embarking on international travels, just to take pictures to filter and share on Instagram and Facebook – two social media platforms owned by Mark.

What is lost?
Effective communication is lost; spontaneity and enjoying the moment are lost. It is now possible for those going out to go out without actually ‘going out’. Words like ‘I had an amazing time’ seem to mean ‘I had amazing shots to use as profile picture and cover photo’.

Even families are hooked on the act. When some families go on picnic, they bring phones along. They pose for pictures and when they’ve snapped enough, they get busy with uploading them on Facebook and spend the rest of the day refreshing their notification page to read comments and see likes.

It is also happening at social events, especially weddings, at which couples may not remember to write their vows but will never joke with getting perfect pictures, which simply means they are also losing a great chunk of fun on their happiest day.

The most ridiculous place I think this addiction is robbing us in Nigeria (and probably elsewhere) is at places of worship especially churches where it is now a familiar scene to see members of the congregation going around taking pictures and recording videos on their mobile devices. Sometimes, these mobile devices don’t have zooming capabilities which means the owner may have to stick his device straight to the face of the preacher to get a good shot.

While many churches outlaw receiving calls in church, most of them don’t have a problem with members snapping or recording during the service. This means the worshipper-turned-photographer may not enjoy the worship session or miss out of the important prayers. The pastor could also get distracted with the flashlight even though he is trying to connect to the higher realm.

Solution
There is no other solution to this anomaly apart from drawing a line — limiting and restricting the usage of mobile devices. We all need to write down a list of “No Phones Allowed” places and stick to them. For some it is a very short list while for others, it will be a fierce battle to overcome a compulsive urge to take selfies — even in bathrooms and mortuaries.

Image: Yasmeen via Flickr.