Taking photos of themselves has become an ubiquitous activity these days, people all over the world post their selfies in social media, without realising its negative ramifications. I profoundly believe that there are valid arguments explaining such a tendency, so this essay will critically examine its possible background and elaborate whether the trend is positive or negative.
The first point to consider is that modern society tends to take selfies as it is a current fashion encouraged by Instagram, where people are used to manifest their own appearance. It has become a standard behaviour, resulting in historical tourist destinations taking a back seat. Furthermore, developing technologies, namely the Internet, provide us with splendid opportunities to watch any iconic sight without going outdoors. Consequently, provided that a person was already familiar with a place of interest, they would be less likely to take a photo of it. Thus, modern values and technological progress provoke a decline of interest among people to the stunning sites in real life.
Therefore, this trend seems to be rather detrimental than beneficial. While acknowledging the fact that by taking self photos people create their memories, there are still numerous drawbacks to consider. Firstly, this tendency hinders individuals from evolving. Being concentrated on their look, people are unable to get either a holistic image or an in-depth understanding of a world heritage site they are visiting. Moreover, selfies represent an egocentric human feature, which has a potential to increase tension in society. For instance, an eminent German psychologist assumes selfies to be a sign of a traditional culture collapsing into narcissism. In other words, selfies result in decrease of intellectual advancement and aggravation of social disintegration.
Ultimately, the practice of taking self photographs spreads in the world like a wildfire. Albeit selfies might seem to bring some opportunities to the society, there are still destructive consequences, such as people splitting apart and absence of self development. As for me, I remain convinced that this habitude is based on instagram selfish culture and pernicious virtual reality, precipitated by the Internet.