NewbE

Well, selfie sticks are no worse than taking plain old selfies without the stick, surely. I doubt selfies are going anywhere, because, newsflash: humans are narcissistic!

OK, I'll amend my suggestion: remove the locks periodically, and station attendants on popular stretches of bridge to firmly dissuade people from putting more up.

Tibor08

http://news.yahoo.com/breaking-heart...104857557.html

thursdaysd

" selfie sticks are no worse than taking plain old selfies without the stick, surely."

They are a great deal more obtrusive and annoying! I believe they are the result of people wanting better pictures of themselves than they could get at arm's length, so even more narcissistic.

IMDonehere

10% of all photos that were ever taken were taken in 2012. And I am sure the numerical trend due to self-absorption, has continued until this year.

I tell younger people, turn the camera or phone around, the world is much more interesting than you are.

NewbE

Where does that statistic come from?? And why do you assume all those additional photos are selfies? I take a LOT more photos than I used to, but none of them are selfies. Does that make me a better person? Or at least a less obtrusive one?

For the sake of argument, I would note that people are not merely narcissistic; we are a very social species as well. And for many these days, the selfies are taken in order to be posted on social media and thereby shared with friends.

apersuader65

Heck, If I was in charge (LOL) in Paris, I would have suggested a different option. I would have sold by bid the rights to be the exclusive vendor of locks to a company, then made the company come up with a cheap, light, and plastic lock with no key to throw into the river. The company would then also be required to remove panels that were full and remove the locks and replace it.

You get the best of both worlds, people get to symbolize their love with permanence - kind of like getting married and wearing a wedding ring - and the hyper sensitive environmentalists and traditionalists aren't offended by actions of others.

NewbE

But we'd still have to look at ugly locks, and ugly plastic ones, to boot!

AlessandraZoe

"people get to symbolize their love with permanence"

Uh, do you consider "going steady" as permanence? I hardly think getting the class ring I wrapped with yarn and then coated with nail polish in high school was worth the defacing of a building. After all, three weeks later and he was so gone.

"hyper sensitive environmentalists"

Hmm, so if I attach plastic locks over every protruding object outside, including on your car door handles, you are just dandy with that? Perhaps you think it would be fine just to toss the waste into your nearest river.

Or just onto your lawn.

If so, just post your address and I'm sure there are a bunch of us who can make that happen.

NewbE

<kind of like getting married and wearing a wedding ring>
It's only like that if you hang the lock around your fool neck and swallow the key.

IMDonehere

You are right Newbe I omitted the billions of photos of cats, flowers, and sunsets, that people think are original.

Do you think the selfie-stick was invented because people take interesting photos?

Newbe go towards the bottom of the following. And I have seen it in other Magazines.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwar...gv#.ilkyyYlpzk

Any other questions?

NewbE

That was my only point, ImDone, that the pictures people take of things other than themselves demonstrate no greater appreciation of the world. I have seen people walk up to Tourist Attraction A--a painting, a statue, a building, you fill in the blank--snap a picture of it, turn on their heel and walk away. I suppose one shouldn't judge: maybe that person will contemplate the photo taken for countless productive hours at home. But I suspect it's more along the lines of proof you were there and nothing more, the point of which baffles me.

Of course, the pictures *I* take are deeply meaningful.

IMDonehere

Newbe
You asked for a citation. I gave you one. Of course, you do not acknowledge that or thank me for that. Nor do you ask others to back up their claim.

The explosions of selfies, should be self-evident.

As your self wrote at 11:25 this AM:

Well, selfie sticks are no worse than taking plain old selfies without the stick, surely. I doubt selfies are going anywhere, because, newsflash: humans are narcissistic!

I will not ask you for substantiate that claim, as the statement, I assume, is based on personal knowledge.

NewbE

Jeez, dude, lighten up! You can't even tell when you're being agreed with.

kerouac

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... The world is never going back to the way it was.

IMDonehere

I apologize, I misread your tone. But here is something that is interesting and I am hopeful my math is correct.

http://stylecaster.com/selfies-infographic/

That cite claims that over 1 million selfies are taken daily. That means that there are approximately 365 million a year. A tad more in a leap year and countries with happy hour.

They also estimate there have been approximately 3.8 trillion photos taken in history of photography in approximately 170 years.

An earlier cite claims that 10% of all photographs that were ever taken were taken in 2012. So 10% of 3.8 trillion is 3.8 billion and 10% of 3.8 billion is approximately the number of selfies taken each year, give or take a Kodak moment or two.

So that seems like a hell of lot of narcissism. It is the cause and effect that is subject to debate. While, of course, there has always been narcissism, I am not sure it has ever been measured or could have been measured. So was there always this amount of self-indulgence or does modern technology encourage it?

Any professional psychologists, sociologists, or students of the human condition who care to speculate?

Blueeyedcod

Wow - what a pack of 'back in my day' whiners. Too bad Grandma sold the box brownie - maybe that would be more suitable for you all?

What is it about people getting in their own photos that irks you so much? How is using a device (and a 'selfie stick' is just that) any different than handing your phone to someone to take it for you? I think it's great that we don't have to bother other people, explain how your phone works and then feel like you're imposing on their time so stand for one or two shots and then profusely thank them, all the while noting that the photos they took are no good/blurry/have cut out what you really wanted in the shot?

A selfie stick device circumvents all of that. Would *love* to know how that makes one 'narcissistic'?

thursdaysd

You don't think that buying, and traveling with, a gizmo whose sole purpose is to take better pictures of yourself is narcissistic? You need a dictionary.

Selfie sticks are also intrusive (messing up the view for people who just want to look at whatever is being photographed) and potentially dangerous. But the basic problem is this peculiar urge to put yourself in every shot. It does not improve the shot, and how many pictures of themselves can one person need?

IMDonehere

I think that selfies and the stick that goes with it, shows a unnatural devotion to photos of oneself and not what you are visiting. It is instructive as to the what is important to someone. And to purchase and carry a stick devoted to one's own image is to add a modern verse to Greek mythology.

As I wrote above, turn the camera and phone around, the world is much more interesting than you. It is like talking, the less talking you do, the more you learn from others.

Whining is a concern about oneself with a lack of self-awareness.

Here are a couple of articles that might dissuade you from justification of the activity.

http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/selfie...n-and-suicide/

http://www.bestcomputerscienceschools.net/selfies/

forza

Selfie sticks lead to addiction, suicide, nuclear war!

Christ. Get a grip.

IMDonehere

Maybe not nuclear war, maybe just a skirmish with laser swords or selfie sticks.