Granted that I am coming from a position of not understanding much of the whole "selfie" thing, but this case confuses me even more.
I can understand wanting to take a photograph if yourself holding a gun in an aggressive or menacing pose... going for the tough guy gangster look.
But what is the attraction to taking a photograph of yourself with a gun held up to your own head??? 
It is not a particularly attractive pose.
But as I get older, I find my self not "getting" a lot of things these days.
How glad I am to hear that! I was beginning to believe myself entirely alone.
This would go down well in the 'Seniors' thread.
Actually, feeling alone doesn't mean that you feel lonely; in my case it's more a realisation of being the last man standing within a generation of family. And strangely, that, too, is a feeling that varies from member to member within the same wider family.
For instance, I feel deeply the total loss of parents on both sides of my marriage as defining the end of a personal generation. It signalled the end of pleasant options, one being the wonderful drives across France up to Scotland where we would spend six weeks alternating a series of stops between parents (my wife ended up wearing the apron in both options!). Another signifier of generational endings is marked by the final exits of friends. Knowing many younger people, including one's own children, isn't the same thing at all when you are considering personal identity; even early children arrive far too late in the series of events to determine character and life-bases for their parents. I think one identifies irrevocably within one's own age group, give or take perhaps ten years at the most. Older folks, such as grandparents, never quite fit and younger ones are simply too far away, with different experiences and tastes, the one extreme explaining the other.
As it is, though I know many ships sailing past me slowly in the shortening longer night, I try to avoid as many as possible. There are too many demands, situational drinks nobody really needs, pointless bumping intos, meaningless air kisses etc. etc. Being left to one's own devices is an escape from all of those pressures and social pretences. Thank God for photography as a sort of panacean alternative. Short of that, there would be very little reason left to keep taking the tablets. Unless just for spite!
;-)
Rob C
