“A ‘selfie’ is a self-portrait, digitalised photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or phone. Selfies are often shared on social media”. So says Wikipedia for our elucidation.
Well, I think we all knew that much without the need to be told. What I find much more interesting is the obsession with self-representation that the selfie demonstrates. The phenomenon strikes me as distinctly odd, even bizarre; a manifestation of the kind of self-centred behaviour which seems so prevalent these days. In fact ‘selfitis’, the compulsion to take selfies and post them for others to see, has been classified as a genuine condition by psychologists. A ‘Selfies Behavioural Scale’ has even been developed in an attempt to clarify the various levels of addiction experienced by individuals.
It should be added that there is also some scepticism about the validity of the condition among clinicians, but as a mere layman, I for one am convinced, and offer an example which demonstrates its reality, at least to me.
The wife and I had to go into town the other day. The weather could only be described as totally shit: howling wind, driving sleet, dark, threatening clouds, and bitterly cold. And yet, there in front of the art gallery and museum, stood a couple of Chinese tourists, soaking from head to foot, phone extended on a selfie stick, busily snapping pictures of themselves. And believe it or not, they were wearing face masks, no doubt to protect themselves from catching coronavirus from us. The irony of the situation clearly escaped them as they stored up memories to be treasured and passed on to family and friends; this is us standing in the pissing rain, masks obscuring our faces…..Don’t we look great?
Yes, I’m convinced that selfitis is real and a total cunt, as persistent and annoying as all the cunts afflicted by it. And there are a fucking lot of them.
Nominated by Ron Knee
A nomination for Claire O’Connor, who has decided to set herself up in business as a naked cleaner, charging £95 per hour.
Humanity, it appears, is so fucked up that even in the event of a worldwide catastrophe such as COVID-19, aka ‘that shit that the fucking chinks inflicted on all of us’, there is disgusting and blatant profiteering going on, all while the great unwashed are simply trying to take measures to protect themselves.
This kind of stuff really, really gets to me. It is bad enough when sellers say, ‘Well, if demand is there, of course we will hike the prices up’. Ordinarily, one would say, ‘Well, ok. Business is business’, but when it comes to a growing, potential pandemic, you would think there would be even SOME modicum of decency in these avaricious fuckers, but sadly no.
My Mum suffers from lung problems. She is borderline COPD, an asthma sufferer since early childhood and at 78 years old, her asthma has worsened with age. She is really susceptible to just bog-standard viruses and when she gets sick, she gets REALLY sick. Her blood oxygen levels drop and her breathing becomes hard to manage due to her being compromised by illness. Since this bastard Coronavirus has cropped up, she has stated more than once that ‘that’ll finish me off if I get it’. Upsetting to hear, as you can imagine.
To try to calm her worry and make her as safe as possible, I went Googling for an FFP3 respiratory mask and hand sanitizing gel. These two things are good items to have, especially the hand gel. Even without this shitbag virus, the age old advice as to how to manage and control infection is hand washing. Anywhere and everywhere, especially in public areas, so hand gel that dries on the hands is the thing to have. Carry it everywhere with you….pocket sized. The mask was in case of REAL dire straits, although I wouldn’t put it past her donning it to next week’s hairdo appointment, just to add a bit of drama to the salon…….
Anyway, to say I have been sickened by the profiteering going on on the likes of Amazon and Ebay is an understatement. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds for just the very basic surgical masks. Tens of pounds for small, 60ml bottles of hand sanitizing gel, something you could get for a couple of quid prior to this virus emerging. Supposedly, the likes of Amazon have stated that they are keeping tabs on sellers who are marking up their goods to extortionate levels in the light of the Coronavirus outbreak……well you could have fucking fooled me. You don’t need to be bloody Columbo or Sherlock to work out that THAT is because they are taking a cut of the profits, so will pay that lip service, but actually do fuck all.
It seems that we are seeing the best of human nature at present in the experts, clinicians, health workers and scientists that are doing their utmost to contain, address and deal with this virus, but also THE WORST of human nature, in these greedy, cynical, money-hungry cunts.
Fuck them all to hell.
Nominated by Nurse Cunty