Trend Gone Bad

By Alyssa Kathleen Arnaldo 

When camera phones first became popular, there was a wide spread fear of invasion of privacy because of rogue photography or stolen shots as we normally call them today. But today, a different plague is present among us and that is selfie. Instead of fearing self-exposure, individuals are excessively exposed not by others but by themselves personally.

Selfie is a very popular trend. Because of it being mainstream many of today's youth are more focused on taking pictures of themselves rather than their own future. In every outing they go to must they have their own selfie and they will not be satisfied until that objective is done. Even in school that is the case. Without the knowledge of the teachers they use their phones to take pictures of themselves. It seems that students don't come to school to learn but instead they come to take selfies of themselves or group selfies with their friends or cliques.

Even teachers seem to have no escape from this phenomenon. They also take group selfies of themselves with their students during class hours but who could blame them? They are not at fault for this. The students who are pestering them are. The teachers only say yes because the students are so persistent on taking the picture. They just want the pestering to stop and continue on with the more important things.

Teachers are not the only adults who are a victim of selfie. Many adults and young adults are also influenced by this. Private company workers, civil workers, government officials, even the Pope have also been infected by this new contagious disease.

Selfie wasn't meant to be a bad influence but rather it was supposed to be for self-expression. It was intended to be used to mark a person's identity in a good way but of course most of today's generation don't know their limits or when they go too far on something. Because of this attitude, most trends that are supposed to have a good impretion become a negative infuence.

Selfie causes young people to purposely put their own bodies on display for other people's evaluation. They internalize outsiders' opinion on their own body image. This could lead an individual to be more self-concious and give more importance to their physical appearance which leads to them believing that their self-worth is based solely on how attractive they are.

These selfies make teens become too dependent on what others think about them. They seem to forget the famous saying, "don't juge a book by its cover” and the line, "I don't care what you think". It can also have the opposite effect. These selfies can also create self-centered and egotistical people who think of nothing but themselves. They always want to look appealing so others will compliment their selfies. They completely forget what's important.

We must not let anyone judge us solely by our appearance. We must not anyone's opinion affect what we think about ourselves. Other people's opinion should not be our basis on who we truly are. We must learn to ignore what the public think in order to love ourselves and gain self-confidence. Because in the end, it is our own opinion on ourselves that matter. Noone knows ourselves better than us.