To be surprised by the number of people who only seem to care about taking pictures of themselves?

[IGaveSoManySigns]

I’m in Rome and spent the day walking around all of the various tourist sites. Everywhere, even in the Vatican city, people only care about taking selfies. Not looking at the information around them. Not taking pictures of the actual sights and historical monuments. Just pouting selfies and videos of them walking. It’s doing my head in!

Old photos of people are nothing like the modern selfies though, are they? People always took photos of people, but it’s the people who block everyone’s view taking the perfect photo of themselves that’s the problem, because it’s hardly ever just one photo!

Also modern selfies are never going to be like a trip down memory lane with the old family photos because more often than not the selfie obsesssed people filter their photos so much it doesn’t even look like them by the time they have finished!

Probably not the right thread for this opinion but I was a teenager right when influencing online started in it's infancy and you can bet your ass that if someone told me that taking photos and videos of myself travelling might end up making me thousands, even millions then I know I would have seriously considered it tbh!!
Plus and I hate to be this person but given how brutal society is about the way women look is it any wonder people want to take multiple photos in a location to make sure they get one that fits the standards they have been indoctrinated from a child to believe is 'right'. It's sad, and it doesn't make it right, and by doing so they perpetuate the same thinking, but it's the world we live in. People who dont understand that are very lucky, I'd say!

I wish I had taken more photos of people. Looking back I don’t need hundreds of photos of buildings, beaches, mountains, etc., as people say there are better ones online and I have a pretty good visual memory. I barely take any photos and it’s such a shame as would love to look back and see how myself and my husband have changed and our family has grown. I have very few photos of me when our child was newborn (well up to now really!), as I hated the way I looked. Looking back I wish I hadn’t been so vain and self conscious as it would have been lovely to look back on and nice for our child as I’m sure they wouldn’t care about my podgy tummy!!

Re the “it’s so vapid to not just use other photos” - I think that’s a strange way of looking at it as you could just look online instead of visiting? I don’t by any stretch think my photos are better but I do know my family will want to see them.

and I don’t think taking pictures of friends/family is the same thing as pouting for videos and selfies for 10/15 minutes, stopping other people looking!!

I don’t think that’s the case. It’s about showing off!

I’ve been in Brazil/Peru/Bolivia for a few weeks and it’s the same. Even the tours stop for photos every 5 minutes and it winds me up. I don’t care! I just want to get on with it.

Drives me nuts when people post videos of a place they've visited, and instead of showing you what they're talking about, the video is of them walking through the place, occasionally turning around so that you can see it behind them. OK, show me you in the context of the place, but YOU are not the attraction, the place is!

It’s the fact they block the view for everyone else that gets me really annoyed

It happened again, literally while walking to dinner!! People stood in the middle of the road, stopping us from crossing, to take photos!

I'm not surprised one bit.

We had to stop half way up the plane steps so the couple in front could turn round and take a bloody selfie.

Big woop. You're boarding a plane. Who cares?

A mystery for me is why people instagram their takeaway coffees.

As for people taking photos of things, try going past Stonehenge. The traffic jams there are way worse than they need to be because people stop to take photos out of the car windows. I would like to set a minimum speed limit along that road and if you don't stick to it, you explode Speed style.

YABU you can get photos of historical places online. People take photos of themselves to show they were there.

When my loved ones die, I wont be finding pleasure in photos of buildings. It will be photos of them. A photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Can get that online. The cliched pose of a family member pretending to hold it up? Would make me smile.

But that’s not what they’re doing

Does it matter? What impact does it have on you?

I am so sick of this narcissistic culture

Urgh

It took about ten minutes to be able to see anything? I was pushed around at one stage by someone taking pictures of his wife, you can’t just walk between sights as someone is pausing to take photos. It’s narcissistic

Never get out of the way if someone's hogging a view for ages, photobomb the hell out of them!

100% agree. I have never taken a selfie in my life, because I know what
I look like and, if I ever forget, I can look in a mirror!
And why on earth spoil the beauty of Rome, Paris, Venice etc by shoving a mug shot in the middle of the photo? I want to remember the place, art work etc without random faces ruining the shot.

This is my number one hate! Phones should be locked away in galleries. Just look at the f*cking art!!

The thing I find odd is that so many people think a photo of a beautiful scene, building, monument etc is so vastly improved by having their face in front of it.

In 2000 I went round Europe aged 21. Mobile phones were not a thing. I had a camera with rolls of film. I had to be sparing with my shots. I liked to make sure the picture had me in it. Maybe with friends. From time to time I took pics of my friends too. I still appreciated the art and architecture but I did make sure I posed for the photo. No pouting though.

I agree OP.
I am baffled by this new cultural habit of incessant ‘selfie’ taking.
It’s the height of vanity and rudeness if it is being done in a social setting.
If a person’s IG feed is just photos of themselves, it tells you a lot about them - not positive!

If you were pushed around by a man taking photos of his wife, at least they weren’t taking selfies 😉

I wish my mum's Insta was full of photos of her.
When she dies, I will have nothing.