Constant obsession with selfies starting to wear rather thin

SITTING in the restaurant at a hotel near Gatwick Airport, something struck me.

It took me a while to figure out what that something was.

At first I thought it was that I was completely surrounded by couples aged 65 and over.

That made sense — with the kids back at school after Easter, pensioners can get good deals during term time and were tucking into a meal and drinks before their early morning flights.

What was odd was what they were doing. Not talking to each other. Not even looking at each other but staring at their mobile phones.

Who knows if they were texting, emailing, Facebooking or soduko-ing — but what they certainly weren’t doing was engaging in conversation with their other halves.

Teens and youngsters are accused of being addicted to social media but if my Facebook timeline is anything to go by, our elders are just as bad — and in some cases worse.

“Here’s me with the grandkids”, “here’s me with a glass of wine”, “here’s a drelfie” (drink selfie), “here’s me off to Malaga for a fortnight, jealous?”.

Well, I might be if it wasn’t for the fact they would get much more out of life if they just enjoyed their grandkids/drink/ holiday now and then without the incessant picture taking.

An extreme example of our obsession with getting the perfect picture to show the world came this week with news a 22-year-old Scot was killed while reportedly taking a “selfie” on a German autobahn.

Does that not make you want to weep? To cry for the state of our minds? It’s shocking, tragic and deeply depressing that a young man lost his life in the hope of taking a daring snap just to show how exciting his life is... or rather was.

Hands up, I post pictures now and then. The occasional family photo that has me bursting with pride; a red carpet interview with Daniel Craig at the premiere of the latest James Bond movie. Show off? You bet. Aren’t we all?

But this “look at me, look how wonderful my life is” act is wearing thin — and in the case of this young man, ended in tragedy.

I once spent so long trying to get a family snap of all my boys smiling I realised the last thing I was doing was enjoying a family walk.

I have a theory that the social media users who post updates now and then — or even more so, those who don’t feel the need to be on any sites — have the happiest lives of all.

They don’t need hundreds of pals on Facebook to know who their real ones are.

And if the saying is true that you can count your true friends on one hand, who’s the eejit?