The selfish selfie.

The term 'selfie' has sprung into the popular lexicon in recent times, with the grey haired men who run the establishment seemingly obsessed with the term. Even the broadsheets have been unable to resist jumping on the bandwagon, culminating in probably the most famous selfie yet. Danish leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt was photographed taking a selfie along with David Cameron and Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial.

Coverage of Mandela's life was at times fascinating and others tedious. When the sad news broke apparently it was necessary for all five main bbc channels to switch to constant coverage. In his life Mandela was a bastion of many great things, culminating in the ending of apartheid and subsequent attempts at rebuilding. Mandela the man was a different story, a serial womaniser and organiser of terrorist bombings. When compared to remove the chains of a racist regime these pale in comparison but were largely ignored anyway. Mandela was the public figure of the ANC, many other individuals played key roles in his success but he was the public face of the movement.

Despite the memorial being a time of joy and rememberance for most in attendance a minor furore arose, many commentators calling the selfie between world leaders disrispectful. In reality it was a private moment between politicians, who presumably had to do something to kill the time. Looking back it is difficult to see how this selfie was so controversial, it is symptamatic of the wider malaise of the media. Here we had one the most important politcal icons of the past century who played a key role in the emanicaption of a people and yet column after column was written baiting the cheery triumverate. That is not to say there was insufficient coverage of Mandela the man, indeed it was suffocating at times, but it was still rather trivial.

Perhaps it is evidence of the defining cultural gap of our age, technology. Whereas previous generations rallied against their elders through rock and roll or punk, the fast moving tech world has driven a chasm that is being chased after by the establishment. To the young generation the selfie is no big deal. Personally I am not often a selfie taker, though I wholeheartedly support ones right to take them without discrimination.