Spectacular sights, selfies and a stickler for tradition

I read Simon Tatz’s article in The Drum, The Scourge of the Seflie Stick, with great sadness. I like The Drum even though some articles are way over my head.  In this one, Simon laments the omnipresence of the selfie during his world travels.  Here’s the beginning.

The selfie stick, dubbed the "wand of narcissism", is now an essential carry-on item for many travellers. But Simon Tatz wonders why tourists find their own faces more fascinating than the wonders they behold.

     His disdain for the enjoyment of others and angst over the use of a small electronic device twisted my heart. I was almost in tears at the end.

Although I travel with a camera, I rarely take photos, especially not of my less than inspiring mug. I also do something very old-fashioned - I leave my mobile telephone behind. It's surprisingly liberating to look at something and imprint it in your memory. Of course, not having a mobile phone or small camera makes the selfie all but impossible. Unless you have arms like Inspector Gadget, it's damn hard to take a decent selfie with an SLR.Like almost every tourist, I have asked strangers to take a photo of me and my wife, and we usually have at least one picture of us from our holidays. But I don't travel to see myself; I travel to see other cultures and sites.If I want to know what I look like, I resort to that well-known invention - the mirror. 

     How, I wondered, could a young person be so condemning of people taking selfies on their often once-in-a-lifetime adventure?  How could one be so jaded? So high-brow? I was thinking selfie’s are pretty much a young person’s phenomena. 

     I had a thought!  Simon Tatz must be old, especially since he confesses to being old-fashioned and leaves his mobile at home when he travels.  

     It turns out Simon is oldish from images and his observations represent some negative aspects that too often come with ageing – complaints, criticism and the offer of better alternatives (that so happen to pooh pooh new social practices).

     I didn’t miss the fact he seems to have spent a lot of time watching selfie takers and not enjoying the scenery or the culture.

     Some facts about selfies.

     Selfies are not new even though the first time the term ‘selfie’ was recorded was 2002.  Before then they were called a ‘photo together.’ 

     Here is a ‘photo together’ with my friend Julie in 1993 on a feluca on the Nile at midnight. 

     Here is a ‘photo together’ with my friend Janet (left) and someone else in 1993 at The Church (not the band, the pub) in London.

      Here is another ‘photo together’ somewhere in Egypt, the Sinai, I think (if I’d had a mobile I would have Snapchatted, Instagrammed and Facebooked it with hashtags of where I was).

On the back of this print I have written, '15.3.93 Ann, Koby, Cate self-shot.' 

     In fact, my photo albums are full of ‘photos together’ and 'self-shots.'  

Simon wrote:

I have seen tourists spend more time on their Eiffel Tower or Taj Mahal selfie than they did marvelling at the actual attraction.

     During my big adventure in 1992-3, my selfies don’t have a backdrop of a natural or architectural wonder which is worse than what Simon is complaining about.  God knows what I was thinking other than me,me,me.

     That trip was the only time in my life I have been so self-absorbed because I was able to be.  I was young, energetic, had no commitments and a lot of time on my hands.

     Of course, it is possible to take selfies and at the same time take snaps of temples, landscapes, villagers, donkeys, sunsets, drunken revellers and basque in the surroundings and culture.

     In fact, who cares what young people do if they are not hurting or offending others. 

     Look at the joy in the faces of this young couple, one of two images in Simon's article.  It made my heart sing. Note the way the woman's hands are clasped in excited anticipation.  They look perfect together and I hoped they live happily ever after.

     Check out the friends in this photo.  It made me think of the friends in my youthful selfies especially those ones I still have today. I felt warm and fuzzy, a bit like the quality of that snap.

     It's possible that these young people will become responsible and dull adults like myself.  Writing this gave me the opportunity to revisit the photos from my year long trip. I gazed fondly at my selfies.  Ah! To be so young and carefree and toned and wrinkle-less!  And happy.  I've always wondered where my jowls came from.  Now I know it was from 12 months of non-stop grinning for the camera.

     These days I am behind the camera (mobile phone) as I photograph my family.  A flip through my old-fashioned albums and the hard drive proves my demise in early 1996 when my first child was born.

      How wonderful, I think when I see young people taking selfies in a spirits of fun, celebration, excitement. 

Simon wrote:

Have we become a society where validation of experience is in the form of the selfie?

     Have I missed something about the significance of selfies? Are they a metaphor for something sinister? 

     I am a simple gal.  Aren’t selfies simply photos that are a semi-permanent record of a moment or an experience?  After all humans have been recording things about their lives for millennia - they painted on cave walls, they embalmed loved ones, they drew funny pictures on stone tablets -  and they still do – they paint pictures (including selfies!), they write songs and stories, they record plays and movies and they write articles of opinion. 

     Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference between a selfie snapped in the early 21^st century and a selfie drawn or painted by a famous artist in the early 15^th century or later?  Well, apart from one taking much longer to produce than the other.

    Loosen up, Simon and other critics of the selfie bug.  Next trip open the envelope for a modern-day cultural experience and take a selfie.  Whether you like it or not culture is dynamic and selfies are part of ours. If you really find the whole selfie phenomena so disheartening, stay home.