Episode description

'Selfies' - every day Facebook users upload 350million photos, Instagrammers share 95 million photos and there are 3 billion Snapchat snaps. A central element of visual sharing online involves 'selfies' -which often generate more comment than anything else. But why this fascination with images that can often be repetitive and unimaginative? Do they feed a culture of unhealthy narcissism, as critics assert, or are they a more complex cultural phenomenon? Also, Disconnected - why are some people turning their back on the use of any information communication technologies? Laurie Taylor talks to Mariann Hardy, Acting Director, Advanced Research in Computing at Durham University, about new research which uncovers the motives and lives of a global population which explicitly rejects our hyper connected world. Producer: Jayne Egerton.