Strike a Pose

Love them or loath them as of 2013 the word 'selfie' has officially been added to the Oxford Dictionary. An increasing phase which grew popular alongside the widespread use of Instagram, it has also sparked numerous new facial poses such as: The Duck Face. In a world where we constantly update our facebook friends, instagram and twitter followers - and even blog readers, seeing pictures of my friend's faces on the internet has become incredibly normal.

Politicians absolutely love a fad - and it was quickly picked up by their publicity officers. Before we knew it Obama was taking selfies at Nelson Mandela's funeral, and Nick Clegg took one with some teenagers to prove how 'hip' he is.

I am a big fan of the selfie, and really there are very few occasions that I would deem inappropriate to take one - but a funeral, let alone the funeral of Nelson Mandela - really wasn't a wise choice of location to prove how 'in' with popular culture you are. Again, with Nick Clegg... The act of taking a selfie, in front of a photographer, really does defeat the object. 

As the most re-tweeted picture of all time proves, it is incredibly hard to fit a lot of people into one photo when you're taking it at such an angle. If Bradley Cooper struggles to get everyone in shot, I can't imagine Nick Clegg doing that much better. It's a shame, those kids would have probably liked a 'serious' photo with him, and yet in years to come they'll be showing their grandchildren the selfie shot - and pointing out half their forehead from where they squeezed into the photo. 

And the latest selfie craze, which I believe has rather unfairly received a bizarre amount of criticism. The #daretobare campaign for Cancer Awareness. Aimed at women, the idea is that they upload a make-up free photo to a social media sight, donate £3 to charity and then nominate some friends to do the same. In under 24 hours over 1 million pounds were raised - and it certainly raised awareness. With all media fads and facebook crazes, there is always someone who believes there is a flaw. Women who have taken part in the #daretobare campaign have been accused of being 'vain' and 'like-whores'. And the most shocking thing of all? These comments are predominantly coming from other women. Even if someone did have vanity in mind whilst uploading a make-up free photo, they have also donated £3 to charity whilst doing so. What really irritates me is that people didn't really start moaning about the nek-nominate craze until it was a week or so into it, and then people only really began to get fed up with it when people started dying. That says a lot about our society. People are quicker to point flaws in a cancer awareness campaign than they are about a futile craze of downing a pint of conspicuous liquid. 

Text 'BEAT' to 70007 and hopefully we can look towards a future where cancer isn't such a threat.