Taking photos of strangers

[Windsor1o2]

Is this a new 'thing'? I've seen it 3 times this week on Facebook. Someone will see strangers doings something nice, take a photo of them and post it saying 'I hope they see this!'. It's been on regional groups.

One was of a mum and son hugging while the dad took a photo of them. So they've taken a photo of someone taking a photo. One was someone paddleboarding and the other was of 4 men sitting on a bench together.

AIBU to think this is fucking weird as fuck!

If people want to put a photo on SM they can do it themselves.

I just feel like the world's gone mad!

People have been taking photos of strangers pretty much since cameras were invented. Hardly new.

I've never purposely taken a photo of stranger just enjoying their day out. Fair enough you catch someone in your picture but I think it's really odd to take a photo specifically of someone you don't know, let alone to then post it online. Maybe they don't want it plastered on SM.

It's attention seeking and I fucking hate that anything you do can now be plastered anywhere public.

It’s the posting it over social media “hoping it finds them”. Wierd stalkerish vibes.

Unless it’s a proposal. Only time it’s acceptable imo.

Social history? Street photography? Hardly a new thing, have you never heard of this?! I'm an ex photographer and did years of street photography as a hobby.
A 'I hope they see this' photo is weird as hell though...

When you take a photo of a group of "others" without their permission and share it, you get a Pulitzer prize. When you take a photo of a group of "us" without their permission and share it, it's invasion of privacy.
Unfortunate but true.

These are different.
It's not just "look at the atreet full of people" it's taking pics of peraon eating by themselves and posting it on insta with "💔so sad alone". People are being totally weird about what they do with the pics

I'm obviously talking about the latter.

I agree.

There's just no respect for privacy anymore. I know people will say that if you're out in public then you can't expect privacy but there has to be a line drawn. I think it's just really inappropriate to photograph people's personal moments and put them on SM without permission. And these aren't just people walking down the street, it's always a 'moment' that the person taking the photo has decided should be captured.

I think thw privacy was originally meant in a background od others's pica, videos etc. Not be a feature for likes seeking dumbs

They’re people in a public place, so the privacy argument isn’t going to get very far. That said, lots of people do things in public that they don’t necessarily expect to be photographed or filmed and posted on social media for the world to have a look it.

Social media has completely warped a lot of people’s sense of what are acceptable boundaries.