Nokia's #bothie will never take off because it's just not Instagram-friendly

Nokia is trying to make a new kind of selfie happen. The "bothie." But does the world really need another type of selfie? Is the concept really cool enough to take off in the social media world? I'm not convinced.

Nokia just announced its new flagship phone, the Nokia 8; a top-notch Android device with specs that'll put it on the same echelon as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the OnePlus 5. But, its creators have included one feature that'll allow people to take a new type of selfie; something they're dubbing a bothie. Cringe.

With the phone's "Dual Sight" feature, you can take a photo simultaneously from the front and rear cameras, creating a split-screen image, a.k.a. a #bothie.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The final result looks akin to a Photoshop composite of two different shots. But, how many times have you ever felt compelled to create a composite of the view in front of and behind you? I'd stagger a guess and say never.

It's not Instagrammable

In the age of Instagram selfies, the bar is extremely high. Given that millennials dedicate one hour each week to selfie-taking, and Kylie Jenner's admitted to taking hundreds of selfies to get the perfect shot; the pressure to nail your selfie game feels greater than ever. And, things like Instagram Stories are setting the bar for posting content on Instagram even higher.

With a bothie, though, you'll have to make sure both your front and back views are tip-top, which is basically twice the work of your average selfie-taking experience.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

It'll fill your feed with #humblebrags

Of course, the bothie will come in extremely handy when you're wanting to capture a #humblebrag shot. Which is great for you, but miserable for all your beleaguered followers who have to tolerate your insufferable bothies.

Picture this: you're on a beach in Bali drinking a piña colada. You can't believe the view before you, or the scene behind you. So, you take a bothie for the ultimate Insta brag. But, your followers won't be quite so enthused to see such brazen show-offiness. Because a bothie just isn't as subtle as a beach selfie or a shot of the ocean. You've deliberately chosen to do a split screen to show just how amazing your life is. Ugh.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

If you're shocked that anyone would roll their eyes at a bothie, you should know that selfie-taking is a double-edged sword. A study by Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, revealed that no one likes their friend's selfies, but people love their own selfies. Participants in the study consistently rated their own selfies as authentic, but 90 percent of the time found other people's selfies to be superficial and self-presentational.

Aside from facilitating exceedingly annoying #humblebrags, the Nokia 8's Dual-Sight function does have one particularly awesome feature. And, that's a bothie video.

The phone has a 13-megapixel camera on the front which allows bothie video to be live-streamed natively and in real-time to social media. Sure, it might not work on our Instagram Story, but it could come in very useful in special moments where one view just isn't enough in your video.

Nonetheless, the photo bothie is unlikely to take off on Instagram because of the ridiculously high bar that exists on the platform.

Sorry, but if we're really going to have another version of a selfie, it'll have to be considerably more Instagram-friendly.