For the past week I’ve been desperately searching for something to write for the social craze column, until I got a tip off from my best friend.
For the past week I’ve been desperately searching for something to write for the social craze column, until I got a tip off from my best friend. She told me the #AfterSexSelfie is going mad on Instagram. Gross, right?
Narcissism
I immediately went on Instagram and scanned through hundreds of photos of couples lying in bed, looking dishevelled and it occurred to me – is social media a haven for narcissists? It’s a common thing really, you can point out the attention seekers from the people who genuinely document their lives. It’s easy. My favourite attention-seeking quote concerning social media is “I look so ugly in this lol,” the annoying yet innocent splash of narcissism in comparison to the after-sex selfie trend.
Gone are the days of uploading photos to the internet claiming them to be ‘ugly’ in order for attention. Gone are the days of posting a status exclaiming your heartfelt ‘RIPs’ to someone who has died that you never knew. It’s all about taking a photo with your partner after doing the deed for attention and letting the world know that you’ve just had sex. Isn’t that lovely?
Escalation
Social media can be defined in two ways; the obvious is that it is there for us to stay connected, talk amongst a wide range of people and document our lives. The other definition which isn’t so obvious, is that it is an industry built solely upon our narcissistic tendencies. It’s human nature to crave attention, just like food and water, it’s vital to us – but are we going the right way about it?
The after sex selfie trend has also made me realise the effect social networking has on us. We feel the need to declare everything to the world: if there’s an incident, our first thought is to take a picture and upload it to a site like Facebook or Instagram. For example, people now suddenly feel that not only do they have an everyday persona to maintain, they now have an online persona too – and it seems the online persona is valued far higher than reality.
So, we can assume from this that taking photos of yourself after sex simply shows how much people need to prove their normality. “Look, I’m having sex! It’s quite pathetic,” but for some reason these people feel that they need to broadcast this kind of information.
Selfie-crazy
The #NoMakeUpSelfie was an excellent way to get people to donate; what better way to get people going by giving them an opportunity to be narcissistic? I’m probably being overly cynical, but playing on such a quality doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. The #AfterSexSelfie is disgusting though, am I being too traditional?
Or, am I correct in believing the majority of people wouldn’t ever be interested in seeing a picture of two individuals after sex? I’m hoping for society’s benefit it’s the latter.
I can’t even begin to imagine what’s next. #GivingBirthSelfie? #FuneralSelfie? I dread to think.
Do you think the #AfterSexSelfie is going too far? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Graham Mcallister / Flickr
