'Selfie tourism' - AIBU?

Nope. It smacks of 'I'm allowed to be here but YOU'RE not.' Why do you think you're better than them? 🤔

Again, no. Wanting a nice picture isn’t a crime!

But you were there doing a photo shot too?

"As you went to a sunflower field to take pictures yourself, I can’t quite see why you have an issue with that. Everyone is there to have a nice time and take pictures."

This!

In the same way several posters and I have assumed your thread is seeking validation and you insist you aren’t, maybe the photo takers also don’t feel they are seeking validation. I assume you didn’t survey them.

There is nothing wrong in wanting a single picture of yourself

there is a lot wrong with wanting lots of pictures, wanting them to look so Perfect , getting people’s way, expecting others to make room for your picture collection

op isn’t talking about the odd quick snap

the vanity and selfishness often on display is ugly

There is no need to defend it because doing it isn’t inherently wrong?

What is wrong with wanting a picture of yourself? With being confident and unapologetically you, happy and wanting a photo? Perhaps to share, yes, or just to look back on?

It’s not seeking validation to have a discussion - that’s called being open to try and understand different points of view , find out what the society norm is etc

although that accusation suggests you have run out of actual reasons to defend taking so many photos of yourself

That’s a totally different scenario though. Surely you can see how ground zero is a different situation to a field of sunflowers?

We were at Ground Zero last year and the number of selfies going on was just disrespectful. Always the pouting with the v signs. Most of them were either not born when 9/11 happened or were very young. Either way, it was just wrong. Our dc aged 16 and 13 thought it was awful too. I’m a teacher and told my form about this and they all agreed it was appalling.

Does seem to be people of a certain age. I don’t like to generalise but based on what we saw I don’t think I’m far off.

And yet you’re here online, seeking validation from internet strangers, for your dislike of other people’s photo taking habits.

I hate places that "have staff to move people along", although I recognize that it's necessary in places that are small and ridiculously over-touristed, like the Mona Lisa gallery or Lenin's mausoleum (visited well before the selfie era).

I think the solution is for the influencers, and probably everybody else, to find places which are just as photogenic but off the beaten track. I drive past sunflower fields every day and I've never seen anyone take a photo.

You’re just being judgmental. People can post on social media for a multitude of reasons. You’ve made a snap judgment based on their looks.

YANBU. Plenty people have died trying to get the perfect selfie. Natural selection innit. I find it all a bit odd. I don't think people taking photos of theirselves and posting them on the internet for the likes are confident at all. They're seeking external approval.

Well, OK, but you specifically went to somewhere where it must have been obvious it wasn’t just going to be you and the sunflowers, and now you’re moaning about other people using something that’s essentially grown as a photo backdrop rather than as a farm crop differently to the way you want to use it.

It’s like going to a library and being annoyed that other people are reading, so you can’t play your favourite drum and bass track very loudly.

I’d argue this until I’m blue in the face. Young women are NOT narcissists for being confident.

I rarely post pictures online as I'm a very private person but I definitely take lots of pictures like this. I think in a strange way it's more wasteful than sharing them, as at least on a profile feed other people can see what you're doing and enjoy it. I often see others and think wow she looks great, I wonder where that is, good for them, happy for birthdays lifevents weddings etc. but I'm not a jealous person I never have been.

I think it's highly telling that you were there taking your own photographs, somebody from an older still generation might say you ruin the ambience of the place and others enjoyment by bringing a camera and taking pictures at all. It's just the way things progress and behaviour changes.

The issue here is allowing tripods. So it’s down to whoever runs the place to stop that happening. Also have staff to move people along.

You really don't get it do you, ah well, never mind

I know somebody like this. Posts ultra-glam filtered shots of herself in fancy cafés, looking like a sex doll. I often wonder what the men who drool over the photos would make of the real her - still pretty, but not recognizable as the same woman!

We met at a French class - she was obsessed with not making any mistakes and would always have her phone out using Google Translate to produce correct written exercises, whereas I would use my own brain and occasionally a paper dictionary to produce a rather rougher standard of work. In the final exam, I got 89% (the pass mark was 50%) and she failed and went back to her home country. I didn't feel any schadenfreude at all but I was happy to see my low tech approach vindicated, having not formally learned a language since the 1990s! I like her, but I don't understand the need for synthetic perfection, especially when it interferes with real life.

The hilarious irony is staggering. 😂What part of YOU ARE ALSO THERE TAKING PHOTOS are you not getting? I bet £1000 that neither you OR the OP would take 'just two or three photos!' 😆

Stop being so hypocritical! Complaining about people taking photos in places of beauty, whilst you're doing it yourself is batshit! 😆

Everyone wants to be a content creator nowadays - I avoid looking/watching all content of this kind.