What’s the one thing that is different this Lok Sabha Polls? Selfies!
Unarguably, the inked finger has not been photographed in the long and chequered political and photographic history of mankind, as much as it has been during the 2014 general elections. This election will be marked as the time when the selfie came to its own, in one of the most populous countries of the world. For many people, active on social media, casting the vote was not just about that. It was also about coming out of the booth and taking a picture of the inked index finger, accompanied by the face, or doing a glorious solo.
In most of the phases held so far, the selfies came, fast and furious. People waited to step out of the booths so that they could photograph themselves and their friends with the mark of having performed their democratic duty. This also got robustly retweeted by friends and family, as well as, in the manner of the social media, by completely random strangers.
As a number of people said on Twitter on Thursday — also a medium prone to encourage self criticism just as it does trolling — it seemed as if the selfies were a good incentive to get out and vote; even superior to the thrill of seeing the spot of ink on the forefinger is the high of seeing that finger captured in an image on social media.
As lampoonist and Radio Jockey Balaji (@RJ_Balaji) said in a rare serious tweet, “#Selfies created quite an impact with the usually reluctant city voters in #Election2014. People feel a sense of pride in posting their inked pic.”
In the avalanche of responses that were directed at our Twitter handle @ChennaiConnect by enthusiastic Chennai voters, the majority were selfies of the inked forefinger, some more creative than others.
All of them, however, were brimming with a certain joy and a sense of achievement was palpable on the faces and, to stretch a point, even on the fingers.
