To think that the smartphone has ruined tourism?

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Before the advent of smartphones, you had a limited number of available shots on your camera. But now, people just photograph everything, without taking a beat of time to LOOK at what they are taking a picture of.
Why do they do that? They must end up with loads of boring photos, and no memories of what they have seen.
And, as a fellow tourist, you end up constantly getting in the way.(not that I care).
(this is after visiting Westminster Abbey yesterday).

I don't get 'oh how about we climb over the safety barrier killing myself because of my stupidity makes the best selfies'

Never mind the more sods that have return your body to your loved ones

Yes, I always think "when will you or anyone else ever want to watch that video?" when I see that happening. Their choice and it doesn't affect me, it just seems a shame to prioritise getting a video no-one will watch over living in the moment.

TBH aren't other people's holiday photos ALWAYS boring?

We make a point of trying to ruin the photos of those we call instac*nts. Snapping a quick photo? Fine. Waiting ages, getting in everyone’s way and tutting at people? We’re going to walk in the back of your photo and hang around for a while.

It’s good fun, I’d highly recommend it.

Did you not have digital camera for years between film and smartphones?
I did and we were in EE and nkt exactly flush..

On a recent trip to Thailand the Jim Thompson House Museum had a rule that you could take photos in the house and gardens but not photos with people in.

When I originally saw the rule I wondered about the reasoning but once I had visited some other sites and seen the disruption caused by people posing for photos it all became clear!

I thought the photo taking was bad in Italy but Thailand was another level, people even hire photographers!

DH normally jokes about not wanting someone standing in the foreground spoiling the view. His frustration trying to get a picture of Juliette's balcony in verona without a tourist posing on it was hilarious. In Thailand we quickly found the only way to get a photo of many landmarks was to have a person queue to have their photo taken in front of it.

Same happened with us with a young couple (Spanish) taking umpteen selfies to get the perfect Trevi Fountain backdrop photo - everyone was waiting patiently then after about 2 mins of me waiting impatiently, I just asked them to move - which to be fair they did after tutting at me 😄.

Yes and no. I agree with photos, but smartphones make travelling so much easier.

GPS- cars and walking. Makes navigation so much easier and less getting lost.

information at your fingertips. Bus timetables. Route planners. Gallery opening times. Pricing.

booking- tickets, trains, planes, hotels. Can all be done on your smartphone.

documents- copies of passports, visa’s, birth certs, insurance anything you may need in an emergency all there.

boarding passes, flight details, travel information all on your phone.

money. No need for travellers cheques or cash.

keeping in touch- location tracking for meet ups, allowing teens a bit more independence as I can phone them/know they can get in touch if they need anything.

. Not having to ration the amount of photos is a bonus- imagine having 24/48 photo opportunities for an entire holiday. Not knowing if they’re any good until you traipse down to boots and pay an utter fortune for your little packet of blurry images.

I find travel so much easier and less stressful than pre phone

I never see much point in photographing famous landmarks or art - so many photos already exist, done much better than I could. I use a digital camera rather than phone and I like to try to capture unusual or atmospheric pictures, as well as people and the usual 'memories' photos. I sometimes miss the film camera era and the excitement of getting your pictures back!

Sorry to burst your bubble but nowadays you can be edited out of the picture at the touch of a button 😆

Saw a girl doing this in front of the Vittorio Emmanuel II monument in Rome (hideous monstrosity if you ask me, though that’s by the by), doing pouty poses for ages and getting in the way of the crowds of people trying to get past.

I go through my photos and put them into folders so if I've taken a few I just keep the best ones. I'm not much of a photographer though and only use my phone, so I usually take a few quick snaps and then enjoy the scene myself. I never take selfies, and am also utterly fed up of all the people taking photos of themselves and getting in everyone's way. Especially when they don't even take any notice of the place they're in - if all you can see is their big head, does it matter where it's taken? They may as well just sit in their bedroom to take them! I was admiring a painting in a gallery a couple of months ago and was actually asked to move by some bloke who wanted to take pictures of his girlfriend in front of it. I then watched, bemused, as they went around the whole gallery taking endless photos of her; I didn't see them stop and actually look at the art even momentarily.

This was in India, where I also visited the Taj Mahal. Which is set up pretty much entirely as a photo backdrop. At the entrance, hordes of photographers offer their services so you can have 'professional' pictures taken of you, and those people who take up the offer then get to go to the front so they can pose. People who don't pay have to go behind and there's a big long queue to get to the one spot you can take a photo of the building which isn't blocked by people posing. Getting through this bit takes a looong time, and then you actually get to go to the Taj Mahal. This bit doesn't take long at all and you're herded through in one long line without stopping, then out the other side. Where you take more pictures of yourself. I think I must be the only person ever to go there and not take even one picture of myself.

I think it’s easier to look/ take in and photograph at the same time now because many people’s brains (particularly young people) are trained to take in and respond to multiple stimulus at once- I find it automatic.

i also think things have just changed subtly from tourism being about a sense of place- visiting something to look at- to the more meta version which is inserting yourself into the place and making the memory being about you being there rather than just the existence of it.
maybe driven by the fact that looking at places is so easily accessible now with social media and google earth.

so basically you’re a dinosaur and the world moved on without you realising 😂

It's not the smartphones when it comes to annoying posing. It's the wannabe influencers. And yes. Absolute annoying. They should do what the serious ones do, be at places at 5am and leave the rest of the day for us😂

Yeah but it still annoys them at the time. I’m talking about the people waiting ages for the perfect, no crowd shot.

Yes and there were camera phones before smartphones but they were pretty shit.

I much prefer it now - you don't have to waste money getting film developed only to realise half the photos were blurred or you'd missed off Auntie Joan's head in all the wedding shots.

We have loads of amazing photos of post-smartphone holidays. All the pre-smartphone ones were a bit blah, in all honesty. I can't say the memories were any better before either.

My dream bucket list trip to Santorini was completely ruined by the sheer volume of selfie obsessed narcissists. It was impossible to find anywhere to just enjoy the view, everywhere we went we had to look at the view through a crowd of phone screens and people posing.

The Louvre is the worst ever for this. As soon as people get in they literally run up the stairs to try to get to the Mona Lisa. The space in front of it is 20 people deep, all with selfie sticks & iPhones taking photos that no one will be interested in, because everyone knows what the Mona Lisa looks like, and is anyone really going to be impressed that you made it to Paris? The picture opposite, by Veronese, is far more interesting, and you can get that to yourself.

when we went to see the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio you couldn’t move for people posing with their arms out like the statue!

I don’t really understand the point of taking photos of landmarks without people in them - there’s already a million photos of the Eiffel Tower or whatever that are ten times better than any photo I’ll ever take, so why take one? What doesn’t exist is a photo of me or my family in front of it.

I agree that few people seem to live in the moment any more. They have to take photos or video of everything and I feel sorry for them not just taking the time to enjoy it. But each to their own.

What annoys me is the arrogance of some people who spoil things for others. I work closely with to a popular landmark in central London. It’s a tourist hotspot and I don’t mind trying to get out of the way as people take their pictures but it’s getting ridiculous now as people try and get the ‘perfect’ Instagram shot. People will expect the whole pavement to be cleared so no one can get past and don’t see an issue with holding people up for ages. They stand in the middle of a busy road, block pavements and get aggressive with those of us just trying to go about our day. All for the perfect picture.

It's sad really as it's know that you remember less if you take a photo

So do I! That little brightly coloured box the film came on held out such promise.

Lol i see this all the bloody time it makes me laugh now how silly they look.