The wonderings, ponderings and other 'ings' of me. Lifestyle, review, news and opinion posts. Chic with a hint of sarcasm... hopefully!

Monday 25 July 2016

Love Bloggers. Hate Selfie Sticks!

Yeeeah, I think I hate the selfie stick. 

I first said this to my husband whilst a little inebriated and he, quite rightly, questioned the outburst.  Especially as being a blogger and huge Instagram fan I have partaken in the odd self portrait on occasion*.  However in the cold light of a sober morning I stand by my comment, not because I hate selfies but because I dislike how this particular piece of equipment has helped to alienate us from each other. Let me elaborate.

Take holidays.  There was a time when in a foreign country, if you wanted a memento to include yourself or your whole group in front of a well-known landmark you’d be forced to communicate with another member of the human race.  The search would start for a willing participant, one who makes eye contact and looked to be of a friendly demeanour.   You’d approach with open body language despite or maybe because you didn’t share their mother tongue. With a smile and a ‘would you mind’ gesture you'd hold out your camera - be it some old smart phone or an all singing and dancing, bells and whistles magic light box - and wait for the response.  More often than not they’d return the smile, take the camera and our photo quest would come to fruition**.

It meant we communed, if only for a few moments with those we seemingly had little in common with. On a personal note it made me more likely to return the favour when tourists came to my home town of Cambridge which they do, in droves! While technology can connect us it also divides.  We can visit places without interacting with people on even the most superficial of levels, we don’t even have to try and imagine the things that may connect us.  Isolation breeds fear and contempt so it’s a far from progressive situation we find ourselves in. Oddly, one place where selfie sticks aren't yet king is, believe it or not, blogging, more specifically Outfit Of The Day (or OOTD) posts. For that our friends become our comrades.



Generally, these entries are not something I include in my blog but I love to scroll through other people's imagining what I would do differently or what I love about the shots they have chosen.  My new found love of photography meant I jumped at the chance of spending the day with @Lifesacatwalk and @Clashingtime for their posts and am now only to eager to do more (so if you want a photographer to come along to your next one feel free to get in touch).

You wouldn’t get images like these with an extendable piece of metal attached to a phone and I most DEFINITELY wouldn’t have the friendships I now have with these brave, funny, interesting, intelligent, cool, daft and chic women.





Take that Selfie Stick!
A snail too, because #nature
*for 'occasion' read quite a lot
**Yes I know in a few instances said fruition would have been the camera getting pinched, but these instances were few and far between.  It never once happened to me.
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6 comments

Erin said...

This is a really interesting point of view, I've got to say! I don't know how I feel about it, to be honest, but it's interesting none the less. I feel like the selfie stick has its advantages for a lot of people. As you mentioned, a lot of people don't feel comfortable leaving strangers with their possessions, whether that be a small point and shoot or a large DSLR. But selfie sticks also allow people to take as many shots without holding up another person. You can take twelve and choose your favourite. With asking favours you tend to get two at the most, and they might not even end up being what you want. All that said, there is something very... Authentic? About asking a friendly looking stranger for a hand. Something to think about, I think :)

Erin | Explore, Refresh

Gemma said...

I can't remember the last time I was asked to take a family's photo. I hate going out for dinner and seeing a table whip out their selfie stick. I find it so rude!

I'm loving all the photos and can't wait for our next trip out!

TmS said...

Me too! Am quite excited about it.

TmS said...

Yep, that's a good point, I feel we can get too bogged down with getting the perfect image and not really seeing the place we are visiting as well though.

Kayte said...

This is such a good point about selfie sticks that had never occurred to me before! One of my favourite good deeds is taking photos of people on holiday - recently one family said it was the only photo of all of them together from their whole trip. So yeah, I'll be pretty annoyed if the selfie stick starts dominating my karma accumulation!

Also, love the skirt and blouse outfit :)

TmS said...

So glad you agree! Will tell @lifesacatwalk your lovely comments about her outfit.

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