#Shootlr Brings the #Selfie Epidemic Full Circle

applikace.cz

There are upsides to selfie culture. It helps people increase their confidence, and perhaps become more secure with their appearance, for instance. I'm sure there are more upsides, but I can't really think of any. Call me old fashioned, by I still maintain that it's better to take pictures of what your eyes see, not the eyes themselves, nor the skull they're embedded in. People see your face every time you hang out with them, isn't that enough?

Evidently not, especially if you're one of the people behind Shootlr. The premise of this new app brings the whole concept so selfies to a new, somewhat terrifying fever pitch - you don't take them, you nag your friends to. Here's how it works: you send a photo request to somebody, and then they open the app, only to be hit with a 3-second countdown. So they have to take a selfie before the timer runs out, right? Wrong, when the timer runs out, the app takes the photo automatically, so all they can do is make sure that both their eyes are pointing in the same direction and they don't have food in their teeth.

The sender will probably get a request back at that point, either by way of courtesy or revenge. You can, of course, dismiss the notification, and I get the impression that this is what will happen at least 50% of the time, if not more. Of course, if the sender is a complete jerk, they'll just keep sending requests until you comply, and it seems to me that this app has a pretty significant level of jerk-appeal.

The only upside I can really see to this is that, without all that time to prepare, people might not spend quite so much time fretting over making themselves look at beautiful as humanely possible, so the selfies born of this weird app might be a bit more honest for their spontaneity, but the whole thing still feels horrendously intrusive.



I mean, just watch the promo video above, the girl who actually takes the selfie is clearly jogging at a pretty leisurely pace, given how composed she looks, but the guy who sends the request is the real issue. I've never seen anyone look so effortlessly creepy, and this is supposed to be the thing that hooks you into getting the app, you're supposed to want to be this guy. Swing and a miss there, Shootlr.

Apps are supposed to fill a gap in the market, to provide a service that people want, but can't yet access, even if they don't realise they want it. For a small subsection of people, that might be true of what Shootlr is offering, but the caveat with that is that most of those people probably have at least one restraining order on their record.

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @Songbird_Callum

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