The Philippines was crowned before as the “Texting Capital of the World.”
As technology progressed, our use of phones also changed. Recently, a city that is known as the financial heart of the Philippines, was crowned as one of the “Selfie Capitals of the World.”
Makati City holds this title, sharing it with Pasig City, which was bestowed by Time. According to a database compiled by Time that contains over 400,000 Instagram photos with the tag #selfie, Makati topped the list of locations with 258 individuals who take selfies for every 100,000 people.
 Being highly populated by the young and tech-savvy demographics, it is quite expected that Makati City will have such title.
However, the local government of Makati City feels that this title is not something to be proud of. Instead, it may not be a good title for their city to have. They are reportedly finalizing a policy that will ban selfies in Makati City to lower their count of selfie-takers and eventually lose the title.
According to an insider, they believe that taking selfies is a bad thing that shapes us into camera trigger-happy people who can only socialize by taking a photo of oneself standing in front of a dimly-lit bathroom mirror.
“It’s not normal. It’s like a virus. There’s more to life than bombarding the entire Internet with lackluster images of yourself showing a duckface or flaunting your abs,” said another government official.
According to the policy that is awaiting implementation, the ban for selfies will not be absolute in Makati City. There will be designated areas where selfies are allowed but it is for sure that bathrooms/restrooms are off-limits. Anyone caught taking selfies in prohibited area will be immediately fined. The penalty are as follows:
- PhP 5,000 for first offense
- PhP 10,000 for second offense
- PhP 15,000, confiscating of smartphone, and deleting all social media accounts where selfies can be posted for third offense and further
Anyone who violates the policy, regardless of the number of offense, are required to undergo a session of Selfie Seminar under the EDSA-Ayala Overpass that will be held daily at 1PM to 4PM.
We remind everyone to heed this warning. Insider tells us that the Selfie Ban Policy in Makati City will be implemented starting April 1.
Happy are people pictured yesterday, all post right Instagram lenses for our own loving selfies.Â
