I have never liked taking pictures. I've never honestly felt like I needed to document how ugly I am.

You can now imagine how out of place I feel in the age of the selfie. It's crazy, I tell you. this phenomenon of people randomly taking pictures of themselves with little regard for where they are or who they are with. It's like a sign of madness, and it's a belief that has been validated because

I swear I read somewhere that psychologists claim that this selfie-taking thing is a sign of mental instability.

I am a believer because to me taking pictures of yourself is pointless, but I guess when it comes to that point of view I am in the minority.

On a broader scale though, it seems that in this age of social media, whether it's a selfie or not, people just like having their pictures taken.

Old enough

My soon-to-be three-year-old son is no exception, but then he has a good excuse. I took his first picture five minutes after he entered this world and have been taking pictures of him virtually every day since then. His mother too has hundreds of pictures of him on her phone and her tablet. We have even taken to creating an email address for him and have begun emailing his pictures to his inbox so when he gets old enough he will have a record of his life in pictures.

Making him a constant subject has turned him into a monster because he now wants to see what every picture looks like and he has even begun to make funny faces and strike peculiar poses whenever anyone picks up a camera phone or a camera to take pictures of him.

I am, however, thankful that his poses are .fairly mundane compared to pictures of people I have been exposed to.

Habit

What's this thing with people stooping when they're being photographed? I think it looks silly, because now the world knows what you look like when you're in the bathroom doing a number two.

Some women I see have this habit of sticking their butts outs while looking over their shoulder. What I want to know is what are they taking pictures of, their butts? In some pictures, I see the women are pressed against a wall, while their butts are pushing in the opposite direction.

The other pose I don't understand is when women have their legs raised like when a dog is taking a pee.

What, does anybody just take a 'normal' picture anymore?

Maybe it's an age thing.

Maybe somewhere over the past few decades there have been some unwritten guidelines as to what to do and what not to do when you're getting your picture taken.

Random pictures

Going back to selfies, it is interesting to note that in this age of smartphones people seem to be less smart. To me a dummy with a smartphone is a danger to himself.

It's bad enough to take random pictures of yourself, but it's absolutely insane to be taking pictures of yourself naked and having them on your phone literally at the mercy of hackers. A lot of movie stars discovered how ridiculous their actions were after pictures of them in the nude surfaced on the internet.

In some instances, it has cost people more than they bargained for. Remember that singer who was married to Paula Patton whose picture was taken by a fan with him grabbing her butt.

I bet you he wished she never took that picture.

Then, there are the idiot criminals who commit crimes, take pictures of themselves and then post said pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Might as well go to the police and confess. It's just silly.

Just recently some terrorist guy sent out a tweet of himself in what was supposed to be a secure location. It's not so secure anymore since the whole world now knows where he was.

Taking pictures is fine, once you are with family and friends, but we have somehow taken it to a brand new crazy level.

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