I was in Windsor and London recently with the family, mooching around seeing the sights having a nice time…mostly.
What didn’t please me was the obstacle course I had to run under and around an increasing amount of dopey, idiotic fucks wielding “selfie-sticks”.
These are, bear with me here, A stick to which you stick your camera phone with a button that activates the shutter. They allow you to annoy people at twice the reach of your actual, physical arm.
Several points are worth stressing here.
A) Selfies are possibly the most pointless thing in the world. If you can’t remember that you were there without taking a photo then you shouldn’t be let loose with any electronic equipment at all. What kind of photo benefits from having a head shoved in front of it?
B) You look fucking ridiculous taking a selfie
C) You look ten times more ridiculous taking a selfie with your camera on the end of a stick
D) I will walk into your selfie stick on purpose and then glare at you, I will teach my children do it as well and while you are distracted I’ll steal your phone.
E) If you are going to use a selfie-stick and force people off the path and into the road you might at least do it for something less frivolous than the Tower of London poppy installation. You are a tourist of far-eastern origin and may not understand the relevance but…it just seems rather tacky.
I don’t get selfies, either. That and dubstep have officially solidified me as a Middle Aged Person. But, I never want to be in most of my pictures anyhoo.
“Selfie” is a pretty stupid word. But I don’t understand why people view them as a harbinger of the collapse of civilization. People go places and then they have their picture taken there. That’s been happening as long as photos have existed. Why does taking the picture oneself suddenly make it a shallow and venal pursuit?
But… people have *always *had their pictures taken when they go to some kind of tourist attraction. Do you also have this weird hate for people handing someone their camera to take their picture?
No, I don’t. And honestly, I don’t really have a problem with selfies…it is a bit self-centered, but so are dozens of pictures of yourself at every attraction. However, selfies pop up everywhere and in the most inopportune of situations - selfies at funerals, selfies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, etc. Those pictures seem slightly worse than a group photo because they are so completely self-centered.
That being said, I just know what your next comment is going to be…so? And I say right back to that, so! I reserve the right to be irritated by selfies! Next question?
Why would my next question be “…so?” Selfies taken at solemn events such as funerals do seem pretty stupid. (If that ever actually happens.) I was responding to Novelty Bobble acting like having a photo taken of yourself at a tourist site is something new.
Of course there’s a relevant XKCDabout this.
Mrs. Devil and I have been taking selfies at every concert we’ve been to for several year. I’m pretty sure we started before phones had front-facing cameras by default. Within the past year Sony or someone pulled a marketing stunt at the oscars and got lots of attention to the term, and suddenly a word and practice that everyone knew or did started annoying people who enjoy being casually annoyed.
Now that just makes you an asshole. Your kids would end up alone and terrified in a foreign country while their parent is whisked off to the hoosegow. A responsible misanthrope would knock into the sticks themselves and have their kids steal the phone. That way, the adult takes on the risk of eye-pokage, the risk of arrest is minimized ('oh look at what little Cinderloo did! Oopsies!), and the ragamuffins learn a valuable life skill.
I have friends who travel a lot. In lieu of selfies, they have always taken Gumby with them. Every place they go, they have pics of Gumby enjoying the scene.
I can’t wait to start hearing stories of people who ended up with a picture of the driver of the crosstown bus because they stuck their phone out into the street to take a picture of themselves standing in front of the store they’re about to go shopping in. Hopefully it’s a cell phone store.
“look here’s me in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!”
Yeah, I kind of assumed you were there seeing as you took the photo. I don’t need confirmation of that. If I’ve forgotten what you look like I can see you here in the room or when I next bump into you. What I cannot easily see is the tower
a) because I’m unlikely to visit Italy any time soon
b) because you are spoiling the photo by “holding” up the tower in a “wacky” way.
So it isn’t a hate, more an intense irritation mainly due to one persons desire to take a photo making them a nuisance to me as I try to merely trundle on by. If it were infrequent I wouldn’t care, when it is constant and intrusive it annoys me.
And no I don’t like it when people hand me their camera to take a photo of them. I take a shitty one just to get my own back, if it has voice tagging I turn that on and stage whisper “this was just after we had a four-way sex session with that lovely Dave and Maria we met on the coach trip”. If their attention is distracted (again I use the kids) then I’ll also take a surreptitious shot of my genitals as well, just a little treat for them.
I get the feeling Novelty Bobble is more annoyed by selfie stick users blocking sidewalks with them and waving them around without looking to see if they’re going to klonk someone in the head while trying to get a perfect shot.
I doubt he/she would really snatch someone’s phone and make them take a selfie only a proctologist would recognize :eek: but it’s kind of fun to fantasize about. I own a 14 year old daughter. I know.
Love, hate, or indifference, I don’t think anyone can honestly deny that using a “selfie stick” (which I saw for the first time on a recent trip) makes you look really fucking stupid.
I tend to think the exact opposite. If I want a picture of the [whatever], there are scads of professional ones that will be better in every way–lighting, resolution, print quality, not having tourists in front, not having cars or wires visible. If I want a memory of what something looked like, I buy a post card.
Pictures are so that 20 years from now, I can remember the trip–and what I want to know is who was there and what they looked like back then. That’s interesting. Remembering that so-and-so used to wear a beard or wow, so-and-so was like 3, I forgot about that phase, or whatever, is what matters. Even things like “Oh, there’s that guy she used to be married to” are part of it. I’d rather have pictures of people looking grungy together around the campfire than Yet Another Mountain Vista.
On the other hand, I’d never show people pictures of a recent vacation unless they were really invested in the people in the pictures (like my mom, who would enjoy seeing pictures of my son in a new place).
Do you also have this weird hate for people handing someone their camera to take their picture?
