Stamp your selfie!

Recognised as an actual word just a couple of years ago, selfies have become quite the revelation. From postage stamps to authorising business transactions, selfies are now doing it all

Selfies are generally considered to be the scourge of society today — be it over-zealous teenagers clicking them by the million, or weird adults spamming social media for an everyday ego-boost. But guess what They aren’t so useless after all.

Gone are the days when they were just limited to photo memories. Now, one can convert selfies into postage stamps that will be printed and ready to use, authorise payments for certain credit and debit cards, use them for several marketing techniques in businesses or pledge your stand for a cause.

With personalised selfie stamp campaigns in different cities, one can now create their own postal stamps and give their mails a personal touch! One such selfie enthusiast Susmita Saha, a financial accountant said, “I click one selfie every couple of hours. I could be sick or happy or really bored, but selfies are always a reminder of times, both happy and glum. This initiative is great as finally I can put these selfies to good use,” she shared.

Whereas Maverick Prem, a writer from Chennai said that this would revive the forgotten interest of writing letters to loved ones. “Doing anything for a purpose is always good. The selfie stamps are a smart idea and are now pulling crowds to post offices, which were forgotten. As a writer, I love writing letters to my loved ones and this will add a more personal touch. Writing as a habit may see a heads up,” he quips.

A matter of debate for some is that role models or achievers from the country will be replaced from the postage stamps. “There was a reason as to why a certain individual was chosen, to earn himself/herself a postage stamp. This is a matter of honour for them and having just about anyone on a postage stamp somehow seems like a funny thing for me. I have a huge postal stamp collection and most of them are people I look upto,” explained Prashant Narasimhan, a marketing executive and an avid stamp collector.

Model Arthi Venkatesh, who is definitely a selfie-lover, going by her Instagram feed, says the idea is a ‘whole lot of fun’ — “I think it’s actually really cool to be able to do this — I mean, considering we are all part of the fashion industry, obviously we love taking pictures of ourselves. Such an initiative is definitely adding to our already giant egos!” She added, “However, these stamps can only be used for personal messages — definitely not when you’re writing a professional letter.”

Now a popular company is using selfies to authorise payments. They have also enabled a face detector, which will check the authenticity of the payee. “This can avoid any illicit transactions and can cut down on crime,” Prem added.

Not just selfies, but people also use their selfie sticks for many different purposes. Like Kishor Naidu, an engineering student quips, “I use it to search for stuff that’s fallen behind my bed, or to search for any leakage under my car. Sometimes, I even check for bugs or lizards behind the doors, use it as a walking stick and even during Diwali to light firecrackers!”