It’s time to turn our backs on selfies
On Sunday, a photo went viral. So, what’s new, you may well ask? Everything — including Aishwarya Rai’s purple-coloured lips — has a tendency to go viral these days. But this goes way beyond the ordinary. Hillary Clinton, one of America’s presidential hopefuls (and the voice of sanity vis-à-vis Donald ‘Drumpf ’) is at a campaign rally… and everyone, every single one of ‘em, has his/ her back turned — because they are ALL taking selfies; and obviously, they want their could-be President in the background while they hog centre-stage (in their virtual lives). The photo prompted The Daily Telegraph to note: ‘Crowd turns its back to Hillary’. Funny. But not so funny is how this photo — tweeted by Victor Ng, ‘Design Lead at Hillary for America’ — begs the question: why is everyone being so politically incorrect while trying desperately to be technically correct? CNET.com’s Chris Matyszczyk wrote (in context of the virtually viral photo): “Increasingly we prefer to be SEEN with each other, instead of looking at each other. We live not to be there, but to be SEEN to be there.”
What is alarming is that this is not a kid’s birthday party, and one wants to click the perfect Instagram selfie with birthday cake; this is the run-up to the United States elections, and the lady addressing the session, if elected, would be the most powerful person the world. If the assembled gathering is more interested to be seen in the moment than to actually take part in a slice of history, let’s face it, there’s a serious problem. Increasingly, we notice self-professed analysts on social media seeking (and receiving) validation on their points of view; nobody really cares what is right or wrong — or, in this case, who is the right fit for the American President’s shoes — as long as you make your presence felt in “public domain threads”. Most debates on the US elections are playing out on social media; they are not being conducted by political scientists, but by just about anybody armed with the art of extrapolation. A tweet at a rally could well be a re-writing of history. Is social media changing the way we view elections? Is this a case of virtual reality vs ground reality? Are political campaigns becoming selfie-ops, where you are more concerned about getting shares and reposts than figuring out a takeaway from a political speech? And, as usual, are we missing the woods for the trees?