This topic contains 14 replies, has 10 voices, and was last updated by 
BeccaDay 9 years, 8 months ago.
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I saw a link someone posted to a story from NPR about the selfie phenomenon. Apparently surveys or research have revealed this is definitely something done more by females than males. I don’t do them, so I must not fit the demographic. It got me thinking…..many places where people might want to have their photo taken, someone else is nearby. When traveling, I’ve often handed my camera to someone else, usually a friendly looking stranger, and asked them to take the photo for me. That might lead to a little conversation with that person, too. A couple years back, I had a great time chatting with a guy along the Fermentation Fest Art Tour route, because he was shooting with a really old school camera that I was admiring. We got chatting and I told him I’d learned with that kind of camera, and he was thrilled that someone had come along who would actually know how to operate the thing effectively. So he sat at the red piano out in the middle of the pasture and I took some photos with his twin lens reflex camera while he played the piano.
Is the selfie phenomenon another place where we’re throwing away opportunities to connect with others along the path of life?
First of all, I will say that I have never given my camera to a stranger ever since that commercial of two tourists trying to get a young boy to take a picture of them in some foreign country, and they found out that they had evidently traded their camera for the boy’s donkey. And then we can discuss how I am seldom in any of my photos because my husband can’t sight through the viewfinder correctly, and as I am waiting for him to take the picture, I see the lens drift farther to the side until I know I will no longer be in that photo.
However, we have no smart phone, and selfies are just about physically impossible with the camera that I use. People still ask me to take photos of them in scenic spots, but they are mostly older (like at least in their thirties), and selfies would not get everyone in the picture along with the view or whatever. Then I have to show my ignorance by telling them that I don’t know how to use their smart phones, but I end up taking a few shots anyway.
I do not think selfies will contribute to the decline in human interaction in the way you mean it, Birdin’. People will either ask or won’t depending on their personalities and demographics. I seldom ask. However, too many selfies can be an indicator of self-absorption to the extent of little if any interaction with those outside of their small circle. That would be how people end up no longer connecting with others. Time after time at ball games this summer we witnessed groups of young females (mostly) taking selfies here and there and all over without once looking at the action on the field. Here we are here, here we are there, here we are, here we are, here WE are! I supposed I could have initiated a conversation with them, like why are you here at the game at all, but again, I am not that type of person.
I have found many selfies to be quite unflattering, and giving the phone to someone else might have led to a more pleasant image. I have heard of people taking selfie after selfie in an attempt to get their look just right rather than being satisfied with who they naturally are. Just today I read that taking and posting too many selfies by males could indicate possible psychopathic tendencies… but I read that on the internet, so take that one with a grain of salt. 😉
And if anyone reading this is addicted to taking selfies, at least please smile naturally and don’t use that tired overused pouty look!
I don’t have a problem with people taking 5 or 6 selfies, to get the right look. Just don’t post ALL 6 OF THEM on FB! I’ll “unfriend” you pretty fast!
What’s a selfie?
I don’t have a problem with people taking 5 or 6 selfies, to get the right look. Just don’t post ALL 6 OF THEM on FB! I’ll “unfriend” you pretty fast!
Agreed!
But there are some people who have image problems, who think they never look good enough, who keep trying to get the perfect photo image of themselves. And 5 or 6 shots is never enough. And others may never see any selfies posted because the person thinks he/she looks terrible in all of them.
Kind of like having an eating disorder: Others think you look fine, but you always think you look too fat.
I would be more likely to ask someone to take the picture for practical reasons rather than a reason to initiate a conversation about being in the same place at that time. If someone else needed the photo taken and then a conversation ensued, that would be fine. Like sandlanders, I would plead ignorance with the camera or phone and have to be shown exactly how to use it correctly. Before selfies were what they are, I was with my nephew and wanted a photo and there was no one to take it, so I held my camera in the right spot and got a “selfie” that is actually one of my favorite pictures of us. Maybe it is because I am not of the generation where it became popular, but I don’t get the obsession of it all. I’m no great photographer either, but I do understand photography concepts well enough to know I wouldn’t likely get a good photo from a selfie. I think people have an innate need to connect and anyone in a selfie phase will likely see it pass.
I do most of my caching solo, so if I want a picture of myself, as a logging requirement for a virtual or to memorialize a milestone, I usually have no choice except to take a selfie. Bill has not learned how to operate a camera yet.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
Okay….true confession…I just bought a selfie stick. It will be useful for when I want to take a photo with all of my students and no one else is around that I don’t want in the photo and also when I am out caching and need a photo for a log and no one is around.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
What’s a selfie?
You are kidding – right? I know you have grandchildren.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
Why does a person think that they have to inject their likeness into every photo ? Do they think that a picture of a sunset for instance will not stand on its own merit ?
I sometimes take selfies, I think because it promotes a casual and fun image of where you’re visiting. And it’s just so easy to upload them to facebook. But I also have my real camera there taking my nicer photos that sometimes include people, sometimes just the view. But I also offer to talk to take pictures for people all the time.
That stupid selfie stick is pretty annoying. When we were touring National Parks this summer so many tourists had them. Do you know how long they’d have to stand in front of the gorgeous view trying to fit everyone in the picture and get the background just right? If I could have just taken it for them it would have been over with in a few seconds. Then the next group could quickly get into place!
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
I read an article somewhere that more and more places are banning selfie sticks. I can’t remember what they all were, but I do remember The Louvre was one of them. No more selfies with Mona Lisa!
I never loved the EC requirement of a photo with your GPSr. We still do it, but we try to take a photo showing us interacting in some way with the area, the GPSr hanging off a belt loop or something, rather than facing the camera and holding up the Garmin. In places like that, I think the scenery speaks for itself and I don’t need to be part of it. I like jar’s comment.
We don’t have the option of quick facebook uploads with our Luddite phone, and I sometimes think that’s a good thing, too. The passage of time and effort uploading and editing what’s shared allows some self filtering. Like….do people really need to see this stuff anyway? Would I have wanted to share these photos with the whole facebook world “back in the day?”
Interesting discussion. I bought a selfie stick for my iphone as a TOTT. Being shorter in stature, my camera-phone on a stick, might just let me “see” into a tall hole if there is a cache container in it, before I have to go grab my two-step stool! I am usually caching on my own, so I rely on, “Me, myself, and I” for a required selfie, or to put myself into the picture of the beauty of the cache surroundings. I think there are positive aspects of a selfie when they are used appropriately.
I’d Rather Be Lost Geocaching, Than Found At Home!
LC, That’s an interesting twist on the selfie thing….using it to help spot a cache! Too bad we don’t have that kind of phone, maybe there are a few more that could have been smileys instead of DNFs!
I totally hear you LC! I’m s shorty too. I hold up my phone to take pictures into high knots all the time! Or into the rafters of a shelter. It’s nice to not have to climb up into the rafters unless necessary.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
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