A day after The New York Times published an article putting selfie stick users to shame, I found myself eyeing one behind the counter of my local drugstore (next to the cigarettes), wondering whether people would think I was a narcissist, a tourist, or both, if I bought one.
My father, who recently discovered selfies, skirted around the checkout line to ask for a closer look. “This isn’t for me, it’s for my daughter — she’s over there,” he made a point of telling the cashier. So much for trying to pretend it was my dad who wanted the contraption. Instead I just blushed as the cashier said, “Enjoy that selfie stick,” with a vague air of pity.
To commemorate the occasion (and perhaps to embarrass my father for good measure) I made us pose in front of the store using my new Inspector Gadget arm. After fiddling with the settings for what felt like hours in the parking lot, I would say we look sufficiently goofy.

Why would I subject my father and myself to the public scrutiny associated with purchasing and using a selfie stick? Because I recently discovered that my close friend is a selfie stick owner — a fact she reluctantly revealed to me. Which made me wonder how many other people in my life are hiding selfie sticks like dirty little secrets.
Probably a few more after Kate Murphy wrote in the aforementioned New York Times article, “Much of the research on selfies reveals that (surprise!) people who take a lot of them tend to have narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits — which may explain why they are oblivious when they bonk you on the head.”