Here’s a thing that’s quickly becoming a part of our shared reality: human beings — normal, red-blooded, humans, many of them god-fearing — have embraced a new tool of self-expression, designed to enhance our fragile planet’s favorite past-time. It’s called the “selfie stick” and people are going absolutely crazy over it.

You’ve probably noticed a few of these new type of photos popping up in your Instagram feed. Much like a selfie, the composition is generally of one or more people mugging for their phone’s front-facing camera, only this time these photos are different, taking on what I can only describe as a more dramatic, almost fish-eye quality. Like crossing a photo trend with a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, the result adds a certain level of X-TREME? to what is, most likely, an otherwise mundane photo. In some cases, it turns an impressive picture into a stunning image.

While the selfie stick’s origins seem to come from the extreme sports community — mostly Go-Pro users — the trend is quickly spreading to the everyday, smartphone wielding populace. A quick Instagram search for #selfiestick doesn’t return sky-divers and base jumpers, but regular people uploading performance-enhanced selfies of everyday activities. In most cases, the appeal seems to be simply fitting more people into the frame.

Regardless of the reason, the trend is very real, according to camera and photo retailers. “It’s sold so well we’ve had trouble keeping it in stock,” Darrick Olson, a buyer at National Camera Exchange, told BuzzFeed.

Debate be damned, they are coming. You’ve been warned.