PHOTOS: #Firstdateselfies are a thing.

Forget witty conversation. Or poetry. Or buying flowers. The latest first date ice-breaker is a  selfie.

But not just any selfie. A #firstdateselfie.

Yes. Welcome to the world of modern dating. Where you meet someone, eat a meal together and then take a first date selfie and upload it to Instagram for the world to see. Pretty sure Jane Austen would be turning in her grave.

Don’t worry if you run short of conversation. Or your date starts talking about their fascination with Hilter’s paintings. Or if your date turns up in Crocs. Just whip out your phone and capture the moment.

Like these people, who are dutifully uploading their #firstdateselfies to Instagram.

Here’s the thing – sometimes first dates will be pleasant. Sometimes they are sweet. But more often than not they can be cringeworthy, weird, awkward and uncomfortable.

But what happens if the date is really bad? If you spill food down your front? If you have to discretely disappear from the restaurant, never to return? What if you never want to immortalise even a single moment that you spent with your date?

That seems like the perfect time to ramble home, throw on your pjs and take yourself an #icecreamselfie (probably not a thing, but by god it should be).