"Selfies" - WTF is wrong with people ??

StormshadowGuitars

Bygone_Tones said:

social media innit. hey everyone look where i was, look what i was doing.

what annoys me more is when there's an accident or a disaster, and people are just standing around photographing it and filming it instead of helping out. what do they do with that footage? go home and jerk off to it?

last year an old woman got knocked down and crushed by a lorry in our town center on a busy saturday afternoon. she got dragged along the road a few metres and it was a bit of a gory mess. I wasnt there but apparently people were even clambering under the lorry with their phones to get shots.  some people display despicable behaviour in those situations.

also driving back from my holiday this year a motorbike had hit a lorry. our lane was the only one moving slowly past the incident. all other roads blocked by the police. I noticed one woman walk all the way from her car on one of the blocked roads a good half a mile away, right up to the accident. took a few photos on her phone, then walked all the way back. wtf??? 

Now that shit does boil my piss, help someone don't take a pic  

Nikko

Sorry, just found this and had to share. Nearly just spat coffee all over my PC...

Snap

ITs easy to dismiss this sort of thing as older people not understanding the youth etc etc, but IMO selfie culture is a symptom of a deeper issue: the growing self obsession that modern society engenders. FB, twitter, instagram - used by so many people to go on and on about who they are and what they are doing. Why is anyone interested? But clearly people are, hence the reason that FB is so popular.

What is the vaccuum in our lives where some of us are compelled to publicise where they are, what they are doing, eating, and with whom? Really, who gives a stuff? Why would I think a picture of my fizzog gurning in front of a landmark is interesting? Or why would I take a heavily processed pic of myself, doing a duck face?

I don't, so I dip out. I don't think its a good thing though.We are a pack species, we need physical interaction for the sake of our own health. Sadly, and I think wrongly, at the moment so many of us are curtailing this social interaction and doing it artificially through inane social media.

Sit in a pub, cafe, restaurant, observe a couple or a group of people: how many are sitting there, mute, gawping at social media, not speaking to each other? Total crap. WHy bother going out? So you can sit round a table doing a group mute facebook session. what a load of rubbish. Try actually talking to each other, learning and using some basic comminication skills.


Its all wrong -  it'll end in tears, I tell thee!

Heartfeltdawn

I guess I think diferently in that I don't want to leave pictures when I'm gone. A book of some writing and thoughts, sure. Some music, yes. A load of pictures of me in Billingsgate market.. not so much. 

Nunogilberto

I can't help but agree. I took my missus to the Harry Potter studio tour yesterday and it was a selfie stick nightmare. You couldn't move without being in some twat's way, taking a pic of themselves up against some prop or other. 

Utterly vain bollocks.

Snap

I do a fair bit of work in S East Asia - unbelievably bad there. Walking around Hong Kong for example, you are constantly barging into people who have their heads down, gazing at their phone. They only seem to look up to talk a selfie, or a pic of their food. Mentalists. Hey look, here's a photo of me with a bowl of noodles, just like every other bowl of noodles you have ever seen! Amazing!

Bidley

Facepalm.jpg

Emp_Fab

There seems to some confusion over my feelings on this...  It's not a case of "I don't like it, I want it to stop, moan moan moan".  It's a case of "I don't understand why this phenomenon has come about - I don't understand why people are so obsessed with their own image".  @Snap has hit a few nails with his post.

Heartfeltdawn

Snap said:

I do a fair bit of work in S East Asia - unbelievably bad there. Walking around Hong Kong for example, you are constantly barging into people who have their heads down, gazing at their phone. They only seem to look up to talk a selfie, or a pic of their food. Mentalists. Hey look, here's a photo of me with a bowl of noodles, just like every other bowl of noodles you have ever seen! Amazing!

The Asian tourists around Bath were great fun to watch. I remember watching a family of four getting off a tour bus. Father got off first and took pictures of everyone else getting off the bus. Then he got back on: queue pictures of him getting off the bus. Then they swapped around again. Bus driver was in hysterics behind them. We used to get it in the restaurant a lot as well, multiple shots of them ordering glasses of water was commonplace. 

Nikko

I cant speak for everyone, obviously, but not everyone takes selfies for vanity reasons. Far from it.

Sometimes, and I can speak from experience here, its just another way of recording memories, for either myself or my Wife/Daughter. There are plenty of places where we have taken Family selfies, that we are scrap-booking to show Isobel when she is old enough to appreciate them. She will probably laugh at what we are wearing, haircuts etc, just as she will probably wince at pictures of herself so young.

These sort of photos are great for stimulating conversation, and I believe that photos really do help to make the memories in your head become clearer when you have something tangible like a photo.

My Wife and I took selfies when we went out for the day on out first Wedding Anniversary...nothing vain about that...we took a selfie at the last gig I played...nothing vain about that either.

Agree about selfie sticks though. Should be a blanket ban on them, as they are not really necessary and just get in peoples way.

lloyd

Emp_Fab said:

There seems to some confusion over my feelings on this...  It's not a case of "I don't like it, I want it to stop, moan moan moan".  It's a case of "I don't understand why this phenomenon has come about - I don't understand why people are so obsessed with their own image".  @Snap has hit a few nails with his post.

Because they're human beings growing up in this social arena?

There's no "reasons" for it, often it's not people obssesed with their own image either, which has been pointed out here. 

Fretwired

Blame Robert Cornelius ... first selfie .. 1839

https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/robert-cornelius-self-portrait-the-first-ever-selfie-1839/

Fretwired

lloyd said:

Fretwired said:

Emp_Fab said:

@lloyd I have plenty of moments in my life that are either in my memories and/or that I have photos of.  There is zero need for my face to occupy any of the image.  I know I was there and I also know what I look like.  What is the logic of a selfie ?

@Emp_Fab ; .. wis awarded. I think the same way ...

You got any kids that might wish you'd been in a few pictures?
 
Too many people avoid the camera either because they think they look fat, ugly, no makeup or they're the one taking the photo's all the time. It's selfish if you think about it.

Phones have meant my old man is in more pictures now as 90% of our family shots from yesteryear were taken by him-so he's not in them, which is shit, we'll not get that time back, but we could have had more pictures/videos of it.

I make an exception for family snaps - they're different.

Fretwired

Jalapeno said:

Fretwired said:

Emp_Fab said:

@lloyd I have plenty of moments in my life that are either in my memories and/or that I have photos of.  There is zero need for my face to occupy any of the image.  I know I was there and I also know what I look like.  What is the logic of a selfie ?

@Emp_Fab ; .. wis awarded. I think the same way ...

Pics or it never happened !

Damn .. if only I'd had my phone ...

guitarfishbay

Snap said:

ITs easy to dismiss this sort of thing as older people not understanding the youth etc etc, but IMO selfie culture is a symptom of a deeper issue: the growing self obsession that modern society engenders. 

This is what I was trying to get at.

Culture has changed, not just technology.  Culture will always change, and people are talking about different things here.  The people talking about making family photos aren't talking about the same selfie culture as the people who post up a picture of themselves with every status update on social media.

lloyd said:

I don't mind people taking a bit of a video clip at a gig, whole songs or the whole time is annoying, but I think we've all whipped our phone out to take a pic/vid or something that affected someone else so I try to be wary of throwing stones in glass houses.

There are so many cameras at gigs for 'big songs' these days.  The audience is the atmosphere and if everyone stands still and pollutes the lighting with their phone screens (and blocks the view) then the atmosphere is less good, IMO.

holnrew

You're just old.

It's nice to have photos of yourself where you look good, a little confidence boost. I tend to look terrible in pictures so it's nice to take back some control and portray a more positive image. I had an aversion to them for years, but then I got tired of hating myself and forced myself to take selfies. Everybody else was doing it, why shouldn't I? I like to think mine are a fairly honest representation of what I see in the mirror rather than being caught at inopportune times.

Now some (girls usually) do go too far and take selfies constantly, with the same practised pose every time. Partly vanity, partly to get attention from fuckboys to boost their ego.

Also I have no friends and the only way to get pictures of me is to take them myself.

Snap

lloyd said:

often it's not people obssesed with their own image either, which has been pointed out here. 

actually I totally disagree, I think that is exactly what it is, most of the time. It may be inadvertant, but the whole "post my updates, here's what I am doing now" is very much self obsessed. It can't be anything else. Its the now engrained compulsion to inform people of what you are doing. By default that implies you believe what you are doing is worthy of publication. You don't publicise anything unless you want it read or looked at.

Its becoming the norm. I quit FB because I was sick to death of everyone posing ephemera and shite. Such-a-body has "checked in" to The Shysters Inn, in Berktown, and hey, here's a selfi of me having a drink in said pub. WTF for? Why do you think anyone cares what you are doing? Answer - cos you think someone, anyone wants tonkno

And because near enough everyone I connected with (lots of whom are seemingly sound in the real world) were posting this crap, I dipped out of it. Totally useless, time consuming nonsense.

IMHO of course, lmao!

lloyd

Snap said:

lloyd said:

often it's not people obssesed with their own image either, which has been pointed out here. 

actually I totally disagree, I think that is exactly what it is, most of the time. It may be inadvertant, but the whole "post my updates, here's what I am doing now" is very much self obsessed. It can't be anything else. Its the now engrained compulsion to inform people of what you are doing. By default that implies you believe what you are doing is worthy of publication. You don't publicise anything unless you want it read or looked at.

Its becoming the norm. I quit FB because I was sick to death of everyone posing ephemera and shite. Such-a-body has "checked in" to The Shysters Inn, in Berktown, and hey, here's a selfi of me having a drink in said pub. WTF for? Why do you think anyone cares what you are doing? Answer - cos you think someone, anyone wants tonkno

And because near enough everyone I connected with (lots of whom are seemingly sound in the real world) were posting this crap, I dipped out of it. Totally useless, time consuming nonsense.

IMHO of course, lmao!

Depends on your (or my) definition of often I suppose?

I'd say 100% of the selfies I've taken have been with a group of people (or my dog) so for me it's more than often, it's all the time.

Delete the people off FB, not your FB I've beaten this drum for a while, FB is shit, if you know shit people or allow it to be shit.

I like seeing my friends on FB's selfies in the pub, I'll speak to them about it, see if it's any good, get a recommendation on a drink or food (I don't hate food shots either for the same reason) maybe get off my arse and go meet them in said pub etc, if it's some narcissist cunt you don't like, get them off your feed.

Maynehead

Taking pictures of yourself infront of something/someone interesting is perfectly fine. We've been doing it for decades, with tripods or by asking friends/strangers when we're on holiday.

What I can't stand is selfies where the only thing in the picture is you, in a stupid pose, wearing stupid clothes, infront of your bedroom mirror. Absolutely no value whatsoever and just begging for attention.

Snap

You see Lloyd, I TALK to my mates, in the flesh, to find out if something is good or not. I'm all for communications tech, but I prefer to speak and see (in the real) my friends. Otherwise, they aren't friends, they are people whose stuff you read online.

(said with my tongue in my cheek btw,;) )

as for Facebook, mate, I tried to delete all manner of crap, but the effing thing persists in pushing crap at me, and it just got on my tits. Besides, people you don't speak to regularly aren't your friends, not by a long shot. I prefer Twitter tbh, thats more my thing, used as a newsfeed really. Equally, I have no interest at all in other people's musings on Twitter. Links to tour lists, reviews, articles though, perfect.

Sometimes I do wonder if I'm just being a miserable git, but I genuinely think that with the rapid and huge explosion in social media, we are all still learning how to integrate it all into our social and cultural fabric. What I do think is happening is a gradual downgrading of people's ability to communicate face to face, and deal with confrontation. Exemplified by emailing in offices. Go speak to someone, save the email for formal communication where it needs to be evidenced or referred to.