Surprising reason why Arsenal lost EPL title

It was a renowned footballer; a former Manchester united captain and legend Roy Keane who first complained of the ‘selfies’ thing.

Arsenal players came under direct criticism from Roy Keane when he complained at the beginning of this football season over their habit of excessive obsession of taking ‘selfies’ even after losing matches.

Keane cited this as the major reason why he thinks Arsenal, an English Premier League team, lost this season’s competition.

According to him, the players seem to care less about what they should be doing on field and seem to take ‘selfies’ and having their six packs exposed, more serious than the game itself.  Obviously, Roy Keane had a ‘pregnant’ point here.

Well, it is not only in England where the youths have taken to having selfies of themselves taken and uploading them on social sites every time. Here in Africa, East Africa and more so Kenya, the practice is rampant.

It is quite appalling how the current generation has taken selfies as a thing to do in all circumstances even to a level of overshadowing real events that brings them together.

What is more saddening is that youths take selfies in circumstances that they should be showing seriousness, commitment, maturity and even concern, instead of concentrating on such things.

Recently, a certain University of Nairobi student complained of the manner in which the candle lighting session to commemorate our fallen soldiers was lightly taken.

Apparently, this student was not happy about some of his colleagues who turned the session into a selfies’ and photo shooting session to a level of diluting the real meaning of the event.

Sadly, that was just one event that was brought to the public limelight, only God knows how many others did the same that day across the country!

Personally, I happened to attend the same event at our campus here in MMUST and the situation was not better. This leaves us with a series of unanswered questions regarding the conduct of the current Kenyan youth.

Are we really injecting the necessary seriousness into our affairs or are we doing them as a way to show off, something to brag about?

Naturally, you cannot serve two masters at a time. No one will convince me that even after the thought of picking a phone from the pocket and taking a selfie while on a task has come into their head, they will still concentrate and do the task at hand with commitment.

It is not a bad thing to have your photos taken for memories’ sake, but many would agree with me that there are circumstances that we won’t be expecting one to be taking selfies.

When you visit social sites like Whatsapp and Facebook, you are bound to meet outrageous and horrible photos taken and uploaded by some of them.

The current young person is one who takes a selfie while cooking, takes another while serving, eating, showering, playing the should be serious games, takes selfies when naked to show their exposed bodies, takes a selfie with a coffin at funerals and so many places.

Youths fancy selfies so much so that they can even go to an extent of taking selfies with accident victims regardless of their state, just in a bid to make a point later, should someone argue they were not at the scene!

This is no wonder; the levels of many activities constantly go down. What about participants of various activities interested to have the selfies taken while on the activity, will you expect good performance? 

Currently, footballers will celebrate with their own phones after scoring and have a selfie of the same taken, and when back to the pitch, spectators would still be waiting for such a person to perform.

Athletes nearing the finishing line would wish to have their phones to take selfies and youths at a construction site would want a selfie taken of them carrying building materials.

Crucial meetings attended by successful people and celebrities will turn every youth helter-skelter, fighting for a selfie with the prominent people present, instead of having them tell them their success stories for their own good.

Had it not been for exam rules, youths would be taking selfies in exam rooms to act as certificates for those who may doubt their academic levels maybe.

I may be joining others for the umpteenth time to criticize the issue of selfies, but Kenyan youths have got to change.

Let selfies be taken when and where it is necessary but not in all places and any place. At funeral places, let photographers do their work if it is a must that photos be taken.

They know the ethics of taking photos at such places better than everyone else. If it is a must for one to have a good memory of the funeral procession for example, you can have some videographer record events.

If you are important at that occasion, they know the situation and they will understand you.

Taking a photo of the aggrieved you at funerals, alongside the coffin does not make you more bereaved.

It won’t help the departed relative if you have to take a photo by his/her coffin to show you are grieving. Methinks it is total pretence to take a phone, prepare your face to look gloomy and take a selfie for us to see how crestfallen you were at that funeral!