RIP the selfie: when Prince Harry calls time on a craze, you know it's well and truly dead

The selfie was the great silliness of our time, the trainspotting of the techno age. So take them if you dare – the world is laughing at you

Remember selfies? They became a global cultural obsession in 2012, when Time magazine made selfie one of its top 10 buzzwords of the year. For a while, it seemed the selfie was the pop art of the future. Everyone, from teenagers to prime ministers, was taking them, everywhere. The invention of the selfie stick turned the taking of selfies into an even stranger performance.

Then, by the end of 2015, selfies slunk back into the subcultural margins. People still took them, but with an embarrassed shrug. There was no longer anything cool about inanely grinning into your own camera. Selfie sticks were banned in many places, and sneered at everywhere. Time magazine declared the trend over with its RIP Selfie cover.

Related: Simon Schama announces portrait gallery displays with attack on selfies

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