So awards season culminated this week in the annual madness that is the Oscars .

I didn’t stay up to watch it live (it was a school night after all), but I was glued to breakfast telly on Monday morning to check out the winners and then scoured the internet to look and re-look at the highs and lows of the red carpet. I’m not exactly the most fashion conscious of women, but I do love to see what how the Hollywood A-listers look on this most important night.

It’s extraordinary to think that they are mostly given their pick of gowns and jewels and are styled to within an inch of their lives, and yet still some of them get it so very wrong. But I’m not going to go into that in this column. (Although I find it impossible not to mention Kim Novak’s face and Liza Minnelli’s lack of bra.)

This year the big story (apart from the award winners themselves) was the extraordinary online effect of host Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie (self taken photograph for those who don’t know the common parlance). DeGeneres launched herself into the front seats of the auditorium, got her phone out and took a selfie of herself and some of the night’s biggest stars. The picture included amongst others Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

After she posted the image on twitter, the social networking site actually crashed as millions retweeted the image across the globe. Now, I have to say if I ever managed to get a selfie with just one of those actors, or even with the edge of one of their limbs, or actually with someone who looked a little like them, I would of course post it on Facebook and Twitter in an instant. However, what this image made me think about more is the ever growing trend of everyone sharing images of themselves day in and day out. The selfie has become one of the most surprising crazes in recent years. And it’s not just celebrities, but normal people too.

It surprises me because I just don’t get it. If you are somewhere special, with someone special, then I accept a photo is interesting (albeit later, not at the time). But why do people insist on posting photos and updates of everything they do, as they do it, all the time. Hey, I’m in the bathroom. Here I am putting the kettle on. Now I’m at my desk. Please stop!

I really enjoy social media and do get involved in sharing what I think is appropriate both personally and professionally. However I am concerned that as people are sharing their experiences in real time, taking photos or selfies and writing updates constantly, that the time will come when no-one actually experiences what is going on around them because they’re too busy tapping it into their mobiles. Will it ultimately mean that we have to look at our social media accounts to be able to answer that homecoming question from our beloved, ‘How was your day dear?’

So people, (and I don’t include Ms DeGeneres in this), be wary of your selfies and your ongoing social media posts. If we already know everything you’ve done, what on earth will we have to talk to each other about? And maybe the art of conversation will become as archaic as taking photos, sending the film off to the printers and waiting excitedly for three weeks for the prints to be returned. Sometimes I long for those days.

NOTE TO SELF: Stop posting, start living.