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!

Oh god this! The longest me and DP witnessed in Dubrovnik was 50mins! Of him taking pictures her doing weird poses and then checking then and starting again.

Its worse when kids are involved and being forced to stand in certain way, pose etc, over and over until the picture is right.

Its so vacuous! Its like they only care about creating insta worthy pictures instead of enjoying the moment! My job involves lots of travel and on a trip to South Africa last year so many of my colleagues spent more time getting the perfect picture of themselves than actually enjoying their surroundings.

I sort of think, to each their own, but I sort of agree that spending the whole time taking selfies or doing “photo shoots” is a bit ridiculous.

I guess people can do as they like as long as they’re not blocking everyone else’s way/ view etc. I realise a lot of people do do this, and that’s where I’d get annoyed I think.

Went to Rome recently (this April) and didn’t think it was too bad. We didn’t get near the Trevi fountain for crowds though so you were lucky there!

Edit - maybe Sept is prime selfie time!?

Been in several museums over the past week in Paris. It’s been terrible trying to see art or having the space to enjoy and appreciate art. L’Orangerie yesterday; a couple, husband holding the phone, wife walking right round the whole of the oval room displaying Monet’s Water Lillies facing her husband and not once her looking at the art whilst he videos her!!!!! People coming up behind me and pushing their phone in front of my face to just take a picture. Someone having their partner take a shot of her from every angle whilst again never looking at the art and blocking the view of those who chose to sit and consider the painting. The only museum where I’ve not been subjected to rude, entitled behaviour was in the Dior Museum and that’s because in most of it you can’t take photos. Bliss.

When I was growing up women generally hated having photos taken. Where have they all gone? Was everyone lying? Were they secret narcissists just waiting for the invention of the smart phone after all? I don’t get it.

One woman I know takes pouty selfies on the way to work and posts them with some unfunny comment about the colour of her coat or a pigeon in the background. She’s just an ordinary married woman in her 40s! Why? Just why? Who is interested in that dull shit? It can’t be anyone she knows because they all know what her face looks like and the colour of her coat. Does she imagine she has some huge secret fan club?

I just returned to travelling after 10 years staying local (had children). Went to Japan in April and was stunned how people were just posing, taking 100 photos, then leaving. Or twirling and filming. I just want to ask - why are you here if you're not going to experience it?

The saddest thing is that there's no consideration of other travellers. I'd line up a shot & someone would walk right into it & start posing, or push in, or push me out of the way. I asked a couple who I'd just waited to take their photo to wait a moment while I snapped DC in a beautiful spot, before they walked into the background. Got a mouthful of abuse. I'm put off travelling now - and that says a lot as I love it!!

I feel we've lost the ability to travel & become immersed in another culture. Screens and the thrill of perceived envy from posting or attempts at being an influencer have taken over. Thankfully we learned a long time ago to get off tourist path!

@Screamingabdabz
Does she imagine she has some huge secret fan club?

I think that’s exactly why people are obsessed with selfies! They look at their lists of “friends” and/or followers on SM and think that they are a minor celebrity. It feels like a lot of people are stuck in some sort of 15 minutes of fame mode, which is why you see so many doing photoshoot style photos and why they block everyone’s view doing so. It’s the “me, me, me” culture.

I think the saddest thing of all is so many people have died trying to take the perfect selfie - falling off cliffs, hanging heads out of train windows etc! The world feels crazy now.

It’s bizarre. Taking photographs of the landscape/architecture I can understand (DF used to do slide shows of holiday photography, and bribe family friends to sit through them with the promise of much Campari). Taking photographs of the family possibly, but the constant photographing of oneself seems the height of narcissism.

I’ve found my people!! Yes, times a million, yes. Can’t stand it. Don’t understand it.

Stand out times for me:

1. Auschwitz. Yes really. We were on a history tour with a very well educated guide, in a very small group, and I was just astounded that there were teenagers pouting all over the place for selfies, paying no attention to where we were or the history of the place.

2. On a rapids ride at Disney. You sit in this circle around essentially a giant tyre, in seats. And this young woman, on her own, was put in our ‘tyre’, taking extended arm selfies as we waited for the ride to start, pouting all the way. There was me, OH, duck-lips woman, and a family with young kids. The rest of us didn’t know where to look, but it was sort of fascinating. The ride started, the tyre bobbing along, and the whole way she’s taking selfies. Then the big splash moment comes, and for anyone who doesn’t know the type of ride, it’s hit and miss who gets splashed. My OH and I exchange looks. We know what each other is thinking. God was clearly working for us that day because duck-lips woman got absolutely soaked. OH and I couldn’t look at each other for fear of laughing. 😆

As an aside, I detest people in museums these days (I sound old now). Nobody wants to actually SEE anything. They take a selfie and run on through. I always complain bitterly that people have no sense of culture or desire to learn anymore. On the bright side, we often end up with massive exhibits to ourselves in museums once the selfies have been taken and people run on through.

Oh, and I have a FB friend who has recently got together with this woman who does nothing but post photos of herself in selfies in exactly the same pose and tags him in, so his entire feed gets the pleasure. They recently went on a holiday to somewhere with amazing scenery. He posted as if he was sharing this amazing scenery. We have no idea - literally 80+ shots per post of selfie woman in the exact same pose, obscuring all the background/scenery. Still have no clue if it looked great or not. 🤯

I saw a video of a comedian - I think he was British.
”Our grandparents: here’s one of us with Winston Churchill, here’s one of us in front us at Niagara Falls, and another at the Leaning Tower of Pisa…”
”your grandparents: here’s a photo of my meal, another one of my latte, a bathroom selfie, another bathroom selfie, bathroom selfie, bathroom selfie, bathroom selfie…”

Paris was the worst place for this I found, worse than Dubai!

on a different note though, I went to heaver castle earlier in the summer and I was looking at all the historic things in the house, reading about them etc, it was a week day and I had taken the day off so most of the people there tbh were retired people, and the amount of them that kept trying to barge me out of the way so that they could take photos of all the artefacts. I just thought.. why? Are you actually going to look at these photos again?

Photos are all you will have one day.
My mum refuses to be in any photos, and that makes me sad for the future when she is no longer here.

🙄 I’m sorry not everyone can be as cultured as you. However most people are taking lots of photos of the surroundings and some selfies. I just came back form Paris and as a single parent if I didn’t take some selfies we wouldn’t have any pictures. I would say stay in your lane, take pictures of what you want to and have enough in your life to not worry about what others are taking pictures of. We saw loads of people taking really detailed selfies/pictures and we loved sitting back and watching everyone just enjoying themselves.

Why do you need pictures of yourself though??? This is what I don’t get

Really? You don’t understand why people want photos of themselves at landmarks on holidays they have visited? You take photos of your surroundings and then photos of you and family members at those landmarks. You sound unhinged…

As others have said if not just google photos of places you’re visiting they’ll be better than yours

Tourists take photos shocker!!

I don’t understand why people would rather spend all their time taking selfies than appreciating the area they’re in!

But they’re not they’re taking a quick snap out of their day. You’re spending way to much of your time watching people take pictures instead of enjoying your surroundings

But that’s not who I’m talking about!

My DS (20) and his friends have embraced living in the moment and have stopped taking selfies. However since a sports trip to India, when DS’s best friends mum asked him to take some photos of said friend with some interesting views of India they now either take photos of each other with just and arm or a shoulder or with the view obscured by each other.
They did take some lovely photos of their trip but none of them were posed.
My DSis got married this year and I took about 4 photos. I caught my DSis perfectly, but purely by accident re the lighting. It is a beautiful photo and captures her natural beauty. Just one off the cuff photo.

I used to hate school events where half the parents used phones and iPads to record everything. They spent most of their children’s childhood watching them through a lens or on a screen. School used to use professional videographers to record the musicals and performances so there really wasn’t any point recording it yourself.

II think my biggest peeve is the weird positioning of legs and the head tilts. It’s all so contrived and looks like they are either desperate for a wee or they have a sore neck or a wasp buzzing round their ear. I haven’t, yet, come across anyone doing an Instagram/influencer photo shoot yet. I fully intend to pull up a chair and watch when I do though. It must be really entertaining particularly when it’s the long suffering boyfriend or husband doing his best “David Bailey”.

There was one at the trevi fountain which was downright embarrassing. She had one person holding their arms out to stop anyone from walking past, and one person filming her as she pouted and walked to and fro. Proper second hand embarrassment!

What drives me insane are the folk walking around an art gallery taking pics of each piece and maybe the info card beside it before moving onto the next one. Fair enough if you want to research a piece more thoroughly later, but why not actually look at a painting in place, in all its splendour, rather than treat the whole thing as a tick box exercise?

I have to admit when I went to the Van Gogh exhibition I did snap a few pictures - but only of the pieces I really loved, after looking at them! But there were people running around without really looking, and that was quite sad