Selfie Sticks

“Lethal Weapons” 

or 

“Weapons of Mass Destruction”

(Yup - we’ve even seen them pulled out during Mass!)

It’s been five days since we’ve seen a selfie stick! Gotta love Sicily.

On arrival in Hawaii we realised that the selfie stick was a much bigger deal in the USA than in NZ.

And we commented then that some people only seem to see the sights through the screen of their phone, But with their own face obscuring a proportion of the view!

Then landing in Europe we realised that we hadn’t seen nothin' yet! From Paris to Rome and 8 countries in between we learnt to watch out for crazy people brandishing their sticks. Something about a S-S seems to make the owners oblivious to oncoming cars, bicycles, people, hazards, animals and small children. The worst place on earth to encounter them has to be around the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

And almost without fail, people using them look like they’re having fun, or present an appearance of fun.

One of our tour guides a couple of weeks ago did a quick survey of our group and pronounced, “Good, no selfie stick users here. I can make this an interesting tour!” Then went on to make some un-PC comments about <insert>Ethnicity<insert/> people whose focal point is the end of a stick.

Negative attitudes are probably enhanced by the number of Hawkers who approach you every minute if they notice you don’t have a S-S, trying to sell you one in neon pink, green or yellow.  It leads to some pithy responses after a while.

In searching for a photo to link to above I discovered this article in the Daily Mail discussing the EU considering banning selfies at major European landmarks. So, have the oldies become a bunch of killjoys or are they really a menace?

Dining in a cafe in Paris, the waiter offered to take our photo!

I will admit that I do like the selfie sticks that telescope into a small tube AND can be turned into a sturdy tripod. That would be a useful gadget.

And to really show my status as a technophobe or late adopter, we have enjoyed moments on this trip meeting new people when either they have asked us, “Would you like us to take a nice photo of you two together?” or we have offered to do this for others.

Loving the selfie-stick free Agrigento region of Sicily.