postaldeliveries

Our local train, on its way to Newcastle.

I have to say, when the cameras in phones improved to the point where
the narcissistic flood gates of ego were thrown wide open, I couldn’t
really comprehend it. The sudden urge to adorn every digital opportunity
with your own image, looking cute, surprised, shocked – with or without a
grimace – amazed me. I assumed, however, that this was a passing phase,
an aberration induced by the flow of technology, soon to disappear under
the tsunami of the next big thing. To some degree, I have been proved
right. Even the development of the selfie stick produced nothing more
than a minor stimulation. The selfie is on the way out.
Then, I broke through into the technological age. I acquired a phone with
a camera – and an amazing number of other functions unrelated phone
calls. This has brought a new understanding, I now see that, in fact,
the narcissistic tendencies I assumed to be a resurgence of something with
survival value from humankind’s past, are nothing more than the
limitations of the device.
It isn’t that we became overly infatuated with our own likeness – it’s
simply that the camera in your phone is pretty useless for anything
other than a selfie.