Was there ever an object that typified our narcissistic more than...

[Tutteredboast]

...the selfie stick.

Can't imagine in times gone by taking 24 photos of myself, nipping down to Boots to drop the film off and going back to collect it the next day. Maybe it's an age thing

I've only ever seen them used by people wanting to get photos with their friends.

Throughout the history of mankind people have wanted their likeness to be recreated, from cave paintings to portraiture, tapestries to artistic studies. They're just easier to do and easier to come across now.

Agree Sunny - I'm just glad selfies didn't exist when I was a teen and there aren't therefore 3 million pics of me pouting into a camera with my big perm and stripey 80s blusher in existence!

Jesus ! Big hair and stripey blusher - I remember that!

They had them in Poundland today :)

No problem with them, within reason.

On recent holiday to Venice found it sometimes hard to walk 10m without being whacked by one as everybody has them and is using them constantly. Think gondola rides with your phone set up on a selfie stick to record your face for the entire trip. Isn't that weird to watch when you get home?

Surely the point of going to Venice is to see Venice? When I got home I wanted to see my pics of Venice, I can see my ugly mug any day of the week

I first saw them recently and my first thought was that we'd gone to Hell in a Handbasket.

But

Like anything, they are a good idea unless over-used. I think what bugs me is people taking photos (of anything) instead of looking around them.

Oh lord! I need to check my big permed stripy blusher and shoulder pad photos are still safely lolled away

Locked!! Phew

I think selfie sticks are more indicative that no one trusts anyone anymore. When I was a kid on holiday we used to ask strangers to take a photo of is as a family so my mum could be in the picture as she was always the one taking them. We would hand over the camera, pose and then have a lovely photo of the 4 of us.

No one wants to hand over their iPhone to a stranger to take a photo. Cod obviously the stranger is going to run off with it. Because the world is run by greed and everyone is evil.

Selfie sticks are just another nod to our increasingly isolated society, every man for himself. We don't ask other people to help us anymore because we assume they won't. So we invent things which mean we don't need to depend on anyone else and society continues to dissolve.

It's a stick with a phone on the end. It's not a symbol of the end of society as we know it

I have honestly never seen anyone using a selfie stick but if you want to take family/friends/holiday snaps without excluding someone then its a good idea.

But TBH a true narcissist doesn't actually need one. Come hell or high water they will manage perfectly well to take endless pictures of themselves without help. Those pictures are then presented in anyway necessary for everyone (and themselves) to see.

Surely this is just the equivalent of the timer on a standard camera.

Selfie sticks are sooo naff, i think taking selfies are too.
And why do all women and young girls adopt a stupid pout or facial expression that makes them look like they are in a porn film or the like!!!
Sad,sad,sad

I, like lashes, do not see the problem. They enable us to take better pics of ourselves with others - without relying on strangers - functionally, that's their role and that's useful.

We've ascribed an awful lot of emotional baggage to them though - which is silly. Vain narcissists will always exist, selfie stick or no.

Wolpertinger how funny, it was a trip to Venice that made me start this thread.
I kept being bumped by them and very few people seemed to be including monuments. There were some on video filming their entire visit via selfie. I wondered whether the saw anything but themselves or their selfie.

Tutteredboast v funny.

It was v weird.

Fraid we do take a lot of photos of our food in restaurants , and a few selfies but we did go to Venice to see Venice.

Maybe it's only a Venice thing? crosses fingers

I do love a good selfie, but I wouldn't buy a selfie stick. In all fairness my selfies are less of the pouting, more of the look behind me there's someone dressed as the pilsbury dough boy having an altercation with one of the bananas in pyjamas.

Buying REALLY expensive cars is far more narcissistic. (I am talking about super cars)

Venice was always an over crowded tourist hellhole divorced from any semblance of real life.

Not everyone can afford a super car!

They're just ridiculous and will soon die a death and be known as "soooooo 2014!"