I went to the gym before most people finish slavery, excuse me, work. The barbell den was empty but not for long. At six o’clock a horde of tank top samurais entered the premises.
One of them was a metrosexual captain upper body – shaved, big arms, skinny legs, hysterical tattoos, a funny haircut. He was wearing an outfit that only the King of Posers would put on – camouflage pants, black tank top and 50 Cent’s baseball hat. He also had a camouflage blouse with sleeves tied around the waist.
This posing lunatic was walking from one mirror to another while making funny wannabe a gangster faces and flexing his arms. The guy was decently big, albeit much smaller than his sleazy training partner.
Both started training their upper bodies while maintaining a steady conversation revealing their sexual prowess. The music was too loud, and I couldn’t hear explicit details, but I guess that’s better for everyone’s mental health.
Those two individuals are representatives of Generation Tank Top, which consists of people who try to fix their insecurities by showing the world how big their biceps are. Obviously, the weapon of choice has to be the tank top because it’s classier than a wife-beater shirt while still putting on display the power of the arm.
One of the favorite occupations of the tank top cult members is gym selfie production. Usually, the addiction starts small and gradually reaches epic proportions.
A guy returns home from work feeling like total garbage, looks in the mirror and tries to lift his spirit by flexing his arms. However, that’s not enough. Others have to see the loaded guns too. Why would anybody want to be big if others can’t admire the massiveness? It’s like being rich and having nobody around to appreciate your new gadgets.
Truth be told, shoving your money in the faces of other people produces more satisfaction than buying stuff. Bragging is essential.
The mechanism does not change when it comes to big muscles. It’s better to hear how big you are from others rather than the mirror. So, what’s the fastest way to spread some information about yourself today? Social media.
In an attempt to satisfy the trends, the guy uploads his bathroom selfie for everybody to see and enjoy. Of course, the magic works only when the ratio of haters is really low. If over 50% of the people are posting hate comments, it’s time to delete the selfie and upload another one because the current picture is failing. The end goal is to upload a photo that receives love from over 60% of your followers. Only at that point, you can consider the mission successful. To get there, you have to sacrifice more than you think. I am sorry, but you may have to change your anti-editing stance too, which is a typical rookie mistake. You can’t win a battle with a slingshot when your enemies are using plasma guns (Photoshop).
However, even with the help of proper angles, editing and lighting manipulation, it’s really difficult to produce a viral selfie.
These days the competition is really high because most modern gym selfie grandmasters are fitness models abusing trenbolone and other dangerous anabolic steroids.
Gym selfies represent a unique trend in the fitness community. Hearing how good you are never gets old.
We love putting on a tank top and being Mr. Bad Boy in front of others. Walking around with shirt-busting biceps next to the typical weakling on the street is a feast for the ego.
Many of you will probably ask what’s so bad about it? Why hide beauty?
It depends on how you do it. There is a big difference between a poser who does everything to look good in the eyes of society and somebody who is on a higher intellectual level and realizes that it’s more important to convince yourself than others. You can think of it as a comparison between a classy lady who dresses well and a brain dead whore with fake hair color, fake breast, fake nails, fake everything. I think it’s easy to tell when somebody is nothing but a village poser wearing revealing clothes just to gain attention. Similar attitude is shallow and fake.
In the case of my gym colleagues, the camouflage dude was a perfect example of a village poser with muscles.
“Look at me, I took some D-bol and now I have muscles. I am a gangsta rapper too. Hear my sick lines.” Nice try bro.
I am not against people taking pictures and loving themselves. Self-love could be a sin but only when you overdose. As the old saying goes, you can’t love others when you don’t love yourself. This is why I don’t think that selfies are bad. They are just photos, memories. The bad comes when we become obsessive and extremely self-centered.
I understand that one day the good days will be gone. Sooner or later, we will be old, tired and sadder. It’s inevitable. At the end of the day, photos are one of the few things that help us preserve the good memories. Let’s use them for that first and earning likes from unaware strangers second.
