Take a walk anywhere vaguely scenic where Asian tourists congregate and you'll discover the newest accessory in narcissism: the "selfie stick".

Retractable, telescopic, it clips on to your phone so you can hold it at a distance and get your beautiful face and body in greater context to their surrounds, perhaps even shoot yourself from above.

A "selfie stick". Credit:Kirk Gilmour

Aside from giving us all a glimpse of how silly we look to swooping seagulls, the stick is self-absorption's natural evolution for an era so thoroughly buried up its own bum people can gaze upon the infinite expanse of a mountain range and take a picture of themselves instead.

It struck me recently the next innovation along these lines will be some kind of lightweight steadycam that rig wearers can use to film themselves continuously, so they'll never miss an expression on their precious visages.