People don’t like selfies and they’re making a serious stand against them.
I’ve been seeing an article circulate recently that lists places all over the world where selfies have been banned. Who would’ve thought it would come to this point and become such a problem? And you can actually get in serious trouble to the point where you get fined a ton of money!
Guaranteed, each location has legitimate reasons for the selfie ban. For example, being banned from taking a selfie in Pamplona, Spain amidst “Running of the Bulls” is completely understandable. Safety is obviously the main concern because, well, you could get killed! One man who took a selfie with a bull charging right behind him was fined $4,000 for the act. And Spain isn’t the only ones dropping large fines. Great Britain and South Korea are limiting people’s use of the “selfie stick”. Though Great Britain isn’t charging, they do ban selfie sticks in crowded areas and popular music venues. South Korea, on the other hand, is not afraid to charge you up to $30,000 and a possible three-year jail sentence for using unauthorized, Bluetooth selfie sticks. Are you afraid now? Because I am.
One of the most interesting locations for me that banned selfies for the holidays is La Garoupe Beach in France. The beach was designated as a “No Braggies Zone”, and holiday police officers patrolled the area stopping anyone who tried to take a selfie. When I did some further reading on this, I found out that in France, a selfie is synonymous to bragging. To them, if you take a selfie, it almost always means you have something to brag about and will most likely post it on social media to share with your friends. Long story short, the purpose of the “No Braggies Zone” is just that. Don’t brag to your friends, and do not make them hate you as you get your tanned on a white sandy beach while sipping margaritas. Basically, enjoy the moment… but keep it to yourself.
I understand the interpretation of the selfie as being self-congratulatory (although I think most that I see from friends tend towards self-deprecating), and that attitude is not surprising given other trends on social media. It does sometimes seem that people intent on sharing positive moments of their lives with people who could not experience them themselves lack a certain level of self-awareness.
An interesting expansion on the selfiecity project would be to examine not just how the selfie-taking act varies cross-culturally, but also how public perceptions of selfies change depending to place. The fact that selfie-taking in France is explicitly connected to “bragging” in a way that it isn’t in other parts of the world might suggest something unique about French culture.
I think this is such an interesting concept, the banning of selfies. I just read an article that recently stated that IN January 2015 NY state made a law forbidding people to take selfies with tigers. Although this may change a lot of male tinder photos, it is done to protect the safety of the individual. This week I wrote about how not to selfie, and I think it is important to take into consideration the safety of ourselves and for others. It’s not worth the risk of harm in order to get that photo you can show to the world for about 3-5 seconds.
Could we be paying too much attention to the selfie? is the selfie getting too much attention? is it wrong to think of the selfie as an idiotic and meaningless form of self-expression?