The Problem with Selfies when You Have RA
HealthCentral
boss-person: “we want to do a cool project with selfies and quotes from people with
chronic illness. Can
you do one?”
Me: “of course!”
Yeah, well. That
turned out to be little more complicated than I thought. My RA got in the way.
It’s like this. You
know that effortless move you make when you hold your mobile phone in front of
you and press that middle button to take a photo while looking as glamorous as
you can?
I can’t do that. Either
the glamorous or the effortless move.
Problem one: holding
my mobile in an outstretched arm. Whereas I can stretch my arms somewhat (all
right, so my elbow doesn’t extend fully, but close enough), there's Problem two.
Problem two: my
fingers don’t have the dexterity to operate my phone in that manner. I look in
envy at people who type away at 40 wpm or more with their thumbs. My thumbs
don’t bend much more than a little, so it’s impossible. Everything a smart
phone is designed to do assumes that your thumbs can bend.
This not to say that I
can’t operate it. I just hold it differently, primarily use my right middle
finger to swipe and text (funny on so many levels) and I use voice control on
the camera. I hold the camera in both hands, and once it’s focused, I say
‘smile.’ And as I hear the click of
the camera, everyone in my vicinity
smile. Which is highly amusing when you’re taking a photo of a building.
But back to selfies.
What about a selfie stick? you ask. Good question. I haven’t had one,
mostly because I prefer not being in the shot. I figure my photographs of where
I am is enough proof that I was there. That changed this summer. When I was at
Queen’s Park to see the Parapan Am games torch arrive I signed up for something and they gave me a
free selfie stick in return.
Which I can’t use
because of my RA.
Problem three: I don’t
have the dexterity to place the phone in the clampy thing.
Problem four: I don’t
have the dexterity or strength to press the button on the stick.
And problem five: when
attempting to hold a selfie stick with the phone attached, this happens
Gravity is a harsh
mistress. (name that show)
I couldn’t help but
laugh when I saw gravity pulling my phone in the opposite end of where it were
supposed to be. It was too heavy for me to hold in the intended position.
So I enrolled The Boy
in the project and he did the holding and the pushing of buttons for me. And
this was the result
Image courtesy of HealthCentral
I look at it as an
opportunity to raise awareness about the impact of RA and to maybe encourage
someone to invent a selfie stick that can be used by someone with strength and
dexterity issues.
See the rest of the
quotes from people sharing what you may not know about livingwith a chronic illness.
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