Selfies and Stickies

Over the past few weeks I have seen many, many folks taking self portraits with their electronic devices. Most of these are with cell phones, those ubiquitous  individual, hand-held communication devices that have become the bane of our existence. They contain the phone numbers of our closest friends and acquaintances, as well as business partners and co-workers. We use them as alarm clocks, watches and locating maps to assist with driving directions.  We can check on our baby sitters, review our portfolios, check our daily walking mileage, send silly personal text messages, or review e-mail. These objects can remind us to pick up our dry cleaning, assist in ordering take out, and help one to purchase anything from a hot latte to a baby grand piano, and we can do this all on a screen that fits into the palm of our hand. Who ever dreamed that this would be possible even ten years ago?


But this sudden craze of constantly taking photographs of oneself at all sorts of places and at all times is more than annoying.
As I live in a town that is a tourist magnet, it has become almost impossible to avoid visitors who are wont to stop indiscriminately along highways and byways to snap a shot of themselves with a landmark or two. Stopping in front of St Paul's Chapel on Broadway, halting traffic in the theater district to get a photo of oneself and Sponge Bob, tipping the Staten Island Ferry precariously to the port side to make sure every tourist on board gets a self photo with Lady Liberty, these are just a few of the more annoying "selfie" moments I have personally witnessed.




And oh, those clueless visitors with those stick things that they swing around in extremely unsafe fashion in galleries and on broad avenues. I recently witnessed an Italian gentleman actually talking into his cell phone whilst it was in that sticky thing taking a personal call and stopping all foot traffic in a major tourist attraction. The end of that stick was swinging back and forth as he walked and talked and attempted to dodge other tourists in his way.  He had men, women and children of many nationalities scurrying for safety in the overwhelming heat and blistering summer sun.


I have heard that many major museums both here and abroad have outlawed these obnoxious extensions....bravo to them!


I understand that a restaurant chain in Manhattan did a study comparing the time needed to serve customers in our present time and ten years ago.  It actually took 35% longer to seat, serve and bus tables because customers were busy taking photos of the menus, the food and themselves eating what they were served. Narcissism at its best.




So, I guess you might say I am not a big fan of these "selfies" and "stickies"...if you are taking up valuable time taking picurtes of yourself in front of...you fill it in: the Empire State Building, the Eiffle Tower, the  Tower of London, the Hagia Sophia, the Sphinx, the White House, or the Brooklyn Bridge, you have missed the time to actually appreciate the place for what it is instead of a background for self-indulgence.