Tuesday, 2 December 2014

What next? Banning selfies?

When I saw the headline title "Selfie-stick sellers face fines in South Korea" over my morning coffee this morning, I thought it must be another example of government regulating out of control. Happily, I was wrong.

"Selfie-stick sellers face fines in South Korea" reports that, since they are devices using radio technology, Bluetooth enabled selfie sticks sold in South Korea require an official certification to be sold legally (2014).

As quickly became clear when I read the story, the South Korean government isn't actually acting to protect the innocent public from the threat of being poked in the eye or any similar risk of injury by banning the use of selfie sticks in public. In fact, the story is much less exciting than the promising title.

Experimental selfie -
 not so flattering.
Meanwhile, it's clear that selfies are a big thing - I've even taken the odd one myself. But when I look at them, they do often look very odd, with rather distorted facial features. Perhaps what I need is one of those selfie sticks that I now see on sale even in such upmarket places as Paragon. Consider the supporting evidence in the two photographs here: even allowing for the boring context, the selfie is not flattering. Having another friend take a photograph worked much better when I was at an ordination ceremony a couple of days ago.

I think on the whole it's better to follow my habit of leaving the selfies to the younger generation. Or perhaps I should invest in a high tech selfie stick: I can just see myself first fiddling to attach the phone and then waving the stick around in front of me. That does sound hazardous to innocent passers by.

That looks much better. 

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Reference
Selfie-stick sellers face fines in South Korea. (2014, December 1). BBC News Technology. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30274974
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2 comments:

  1. Katie2 December 2014 at 20:11

    I have one selffie-stick which my cousin gave as a Bangkok visiting present from Korea, but I am so accustomed to not using it. I often forget taking it when our family travel and need it for taking a family picture. Until now, I have not succeed in taking three people family picture in one frame.

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  2. Unknown2 December 2014 at 22:24

    I am not interested in selfies or taking a picure whatsoever since I am getting old. As for my daughter, young generation, her favorite is photo sticker called Purikura. It is a bit different from the selfie. Photo machine will take a picure of you in a special booth covered with curtains so that other people can not see you.
    My family was suprised to see so many Thai people were doing selfies everywhere in public without any hesitaiton. In my opinion, Japanse people are too shy to do selfie especially in public. It is a big culture difference. I always enjoy finding similarities and differences between Thai people and Japanese.

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