#Selfie

Sophie has a notion to create the ultimate selfie. She arranges her surroundings, places her tools and prepares herself. When the scene is set she snaps a self-portrait with her mobile phone. She uploads it to Facebook. Reactions trickle, then flood, into cyberspace. People comment and share. Like and object. A friend races across town, hurrying against real time in the real world.

Author’s note:

I connected with a friend on Facebook. Her revelations were colourful and unabashed. I was bothered by their frequency, confused by their frankness. I learned about her hopes and dreams, fears and fantasies. I knew where she liked to go and who she liked to go there with. I knew what she looked like before we sat at the same table, drank wine, and plunged into rich conversation.

Hours later we hugged – surprised, I think, that we’d each discovered someone who would become one of our lives’ navigation points. I left that first meeting enriched, knowing I would one day hurry across real distance in real time, if needed, for this flesh-and-blood person. Something I never dreamed I might one day do for the cyber-woman I had known.

#Selfie is about cyberspace, what lives there, and what doesn’t. It’s a reflection on social media’s seduction of our thinking, and our souls.

Where can I read it?

Murder and Machinery. Published by Black Beacon Books (France). Find it here>