Life before selfies was unflattering, to be fair

I’m not one for nostalgia about the days when you had to find out what you looked like through the lens by going down to the chemist, dropping off a film and waiting about a month for 24 shiny, disappointing prints of shots that these days would have meant instant delete - or at least the application of a series acne edit, crop and soft focus.

Highlights of the old school approach in my memory include getting a packet back from the first holiday I had ever attended without my parents.

It sported a large red sticker, declaring ‘suspicious content’ which was enough to send a teenager scurrying home in shame - if a little baffled how holiday snaps of me and my best friend bikini-clad pre-cellulite could possible cause offence.

It emerged, as these things do that, after the application of unused-to alcohol consumption, a group of holidaying boys had ‘borrowed’ the camera and taken around 10 rather graphic shots of themselves mooning - not a beautiful sight I can assure you.

Safe to say my parents did not get see to these instead being assured that only a few photos ‘came out’, which they believed.

I clearly remember hiding negatives under the bed. Now it’s not so much the all-seeing eye of the lens but seeing from our own perspective via selfies, filtered photographs and apps to change the way we look.

You can even add things - the six pack you wanted, a spot of virtual plastic surgery and you edit out what you want - including less than appealing fellow tourists who happen to get in shot - or when the boyfriend in your favourite selfie becomes an ex- just edit him out.

Disreputable bloggers have even been caught out pretending to travel the world in glam spots via photos stunted up in their bedrooms.

The idea of the all-seeing lens is completely out of the window and you now control your own image, 99 per cent of the time.

Which is a huge relief for us normal types - although a six pack is just too far.

Apart from that, guilty, m’lud.