Step aside selfie, you’re old news! The time has come to take a velfie. Velfie is selfie’s more dynamic, more explicit, less forgiving cousin. It’s bad news for the legion of duckface beauties who’ve managed to get by and build Instagram empires thanks to their good looks, a dab of Facetune and a nice coat of Valencia. With video, users need to say or do something worth watching – they need a personality.
Right now in the Middle East, Lebanese funny-man Issam “Simi” Merheb is going viral for his short video rants about Lebanese society. Whether you love him or roll your eyes, the actor and event planner is the talk of the town. His most famous velfie to date criticizes Lebanon’s increasingly popular “destination wedding” movement. While you may or may not agree with his point of view (some people have destination weddings to cut down on guests and costs on purpose), it’s definitely a hot topic during wedding season, and an entertaining few seconds of your life. His other velfies pay tribute to a vast range of subjects, from Lebanon's newly imposed traffic laws, to fashionable vegetables.
Though he’s not the first person to take a video of himself, he did popularize the word “velfie” locally. You might argue that videos of one’s self are not a new thing at all – and you're right, they’re not. Other than the obvious YouTube, there's also lots of video-enabled social media from Facebook to Instagram and beyond, and of course video-based apps like the wildly popular Vine, where some masterful short videos have made stars out of ordinary (albeit hilarious) people. All this is because videos are more exciting, dynamic, emotional and engaging than simple, static photos.
Obviously no good idea goes un-monetized for long, and now may be the time for an even greater revolution. India is predicting a craze in video selfies, and after the success of Dubsmash has launching a similar version of the app that also includes subtitles and more filters, appropriately called "Velfie." These apps serve as training wheels for the world of velfie-ing by letting people lip-synch and record video to popular pre-recorded audio. The Velfie app will potentially introduce its own social network in the future too. Simi, in one of his most recent velfies, jokingly accuses the Velfie app of stealing the word he claims to have used first.
Of course we don’t know which way velfies will evolve once (if?) they become as popular as selfies and maybe also earn a spot in the dictionary. We may soon be watching hours of essentially mindless 3D selfies. On the other hand there is hope that this new(ish) trend will breed more and more fresh, fun social media personalities. The future of velfies is unclear, but be sure to memorize the word because you’ll definitely hear it again.