The Selfie Stick - The Darkest Point in Humanity

The selfie stick at work. Steups.
Photo credit: The Telegraph

Let's just get right down to it. The selfie stick. It is possibly one of the most polarising contraptions out there right now. You either love it, or hate it. So what is it?

I love Urban Dictionary!

Selfie Stick 
- An extendable stick you can put your phone on so you can take a selfie from farther away.
- An elongated rod, usually made out of plastic or steel, with a camera on one end and a dense moron on the other

Others have also referred to the selfie stick as the Staff of Narcissus and my favourite was British journalist, Grace Dent who described them as "one of the darkest points in humanity".

Yet to some, the selfie stick is a moment in history - a greater discovery than the coffee bean, electricity or air-conditioning. Yep. Being able to enhance one's selfies for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is the reason they sleep better at night.

I did some more research into this phenomenon and there are three basic kinds of Narcissistick...sorry...selfie stick.

• The sticks that are Bluetooth-enabled, which pair with your iPhone or Android phone and let you press a button on the handle to take a photo. 
• The sticks that plug into your smartphone’s headphone jack, which also let you take a photo with the press of a button on the handle. 
• Sticks that come without any remote triggering function; some of these are sold as a package deal with a keychain-sized Bluetooth remote. (source: QZ.com)

Now I love me a selfie and if one morning I think I look extra cute, better believe I am taking a freakin' selfie. Not on my soapbox when it comes to selfies - selfies can be great. But, what is this selfie stick business? I have a problem with this - people walking around with a stick to take selfies? C'mon man.

Now from a travelling perspective, and as a solo traveller, I completely understand how challenging it can be to document some of your moments on a life-changing global discovery. You stand in front of that monument you reaaaaaaally want to get a photo of - with you in it - and then do the tourist 'bait and release ' where you size up the other tourists or locals passing by and decide who looks friendly enough, or at the very least, the least surly, so you can ask them to take that photo for you.

Nowadays, with smartphones with flip cameras and so on, the vacation selfie has sometimes replaced the charity photo from fellow tourists. I have still not jumped on the vacation selfie train completely. I still like the old fashioned tourist beg because they are often much better photos, if you are a seasoned campaigner and know how to choose your volunteer photographer, and I still like having 1-minute meet and greets with strangers who may be just like me, or not. That's part of the beauty of travelling, for me.

But I will admit, I am not a lover of the selfie stick. Though I get how it could benefit me as a solo traveller in particular, I feel an overwhelming distaste for it. I am so glad many museums and other such places have seen fit to ban their use. It is already hard battling with overzealous tourists trying to take selfies in front of everything, including that painting you want to take a closer look at. Add a 3-foot stick to the mix, and a few hundred...thousand tourists to that, and it is a nightmare.

This would drive me crazy!

Not to mention, people seem to be whipping out these things any and everywhere. There has to be some risk of physical harm as people walk around with these things threatening to poke you in the eye or in the guts. Not to mention the plain old inconvenience of it.

There was the guy in Rio de Janeiro waiting to go up the Sugarloaf Mountain cable car. His gigantic selfie stick kept getting caught in the vinyl ceiling of the waiting area and then inconvenienced other passengers inside the already-cramped cable car. - TreeHugger.com

But of course it speaks to a deeper malaise -the ever pervasive need to be viewed, to be 'liked', to create this world where everything about us and around us is perfect. Where every single thing is a photo opportunity and a chance to get 100 likes on Instagram and get more likes than the photo taken before or your friend's photo. Where you end up becoming more focused on the photo's potential on your social media than on the actual moment.

I’ll never forget the woman at a spectacular northeastern beach who never took her eyes off her extended cell phone, carefully wading into the warm turquoise ocean while holding her selfie stick at the perfect angle. She posed, smiled, angled her head, posed again. Not once did she put down her stick to actually swim in the water - Treehugger.com

Co-sign!
Photo credit: The Telegraph

If this is your thing though, more power to you. I won't wade up to a woman like this and tell her don't do it. That is her business. I will possibly snicker and roll my eyes and blog about it, but it is her right to look like an idiot.

Where I do have a problem is if that selfie stick is going to challenge ME! - if it is going to block my view of my experience, be totally invasive during my moment, or just simply physically be a nuisance.

So kudos to some of my favourite places like the National Gallery and the Chateau de Versailles for banning the selfie stick to ensure everyone can enjoy the treasures which these venues offer to visitors.

Sadly I am hearing that selfie drones may soon be inflicted upon us. At that point I think I may just retreat into self-imposed exile from the world.

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Memorable Mobile (phone) Moments

The vague twitterings

So I can finally blog about my day on Tuesday. So to make a long story pretty damn short, I won a competition and ultimately won myself a chance to be on the set of the new T-Mobile UK ad.  For those who don't know about the T-Mobile UK ads, they are loads of fun. I cannot decide which one I like the most but getting the chance to be on set for the new one was something I was excited about.

Now I was under the impression that I was just going to be on set, and see how they did the whole thing and for a Communications postgrad, that in itself is exciting. Little did I realise, I was going to be IN the damn thing. lol. When lovely Charlotte called me and told me to dress up in my "Sunday best", I was like "say what?"

Needless to say, the trininista is always prepared and despite being away from home, I did manage to throw a couple frocks in my bag while packing how many months ago, so I did in fact have an item which could be aptly described as "Sunday best". And despite all my quarrelling about no heels in London, I do in fact have a pair with me. I would never leave home without a pair of heels. AS IF!

Charlotte would not divulge much about the location, the concept, what I was going to be doing - nada. It was all pretty 007, and I showed up at the meeting point, which was not the set, and had no clue what I was getting myself into. I figured if I was in a silly purple dress, with a rose hair accessory, and heels, in the middle of rush hour morning - a dress which was more Caribbean than Britain, and on a cold English day, I was hopefully going to be indoors.

Furthermore, Sunday best typically means a) a church or b) a fancy schmancy dinner. The next stop was in fact a hall, where I assumed we would be for option B, but nope - just briefing. It was so clandestine, you would not believe. Not a peep from anyone. Zero. Nada. Rien.

There were probably about 80 other people there - all in fancy suits and fancy dress and hats. I loved the ladies in their hats. All sizes, all colours. Some of these gals took this thing really seriously, coming with suitcases with different outfits and hats to make sure they looked right for the part so they could be caught on camera. I wondered whether I could pull off a hat and decided that yes, I could, cause I am fabulous.

My lovely rose hair accessory

The other lucky winners - all great people might I add - were also clueless, as were the other 80-odd people. We then underwent a cursory once-over by wardrobe, who politely decided who was fancy enough to stay in what they were wearing for the shoot or who would end up in what I would later call, the dreaded choir outfit. I passed the test, in my purple Caribbean dress and rose hairpiece, but they took poor Sonso away from me and I had no idea where they had gone with my friend until later. I could not stop laughing after seeing the expression on her face when I next saw her.

At the church. Yes...the church. The concept was more than obvious by then, but will let you see for yourself below. Keep in mind where I am and what people are looking forward to here. I still managed surprise and enthusiasm because really it was loads of fun, even after doing the same take a million times and acting surprised every time.  Also there was Louie Spence, who I imagine is a big deal here cause everyone was like "Is that Louie Spence?" - just thought I would put that in there although even after Googling the chap, still have no clue who he is, except that I assume he helped choreograph the scene.

But the company was good fun, as I sat with 3 gorgeous and funny boys, who made laughing and smiling throughout the shoot rather easy. The other extras (sorry...the politically correct term is support artist) were superb and it was a good day out for the oft-frazzled postgrad. And while my classmates were pulling hairs out over their proposals, I was standing and smiling on cue, and later posing for photos, with "royalty".

The ad is not as great as the others they have done and I expected more actually, especially after all the secrecy and hype, but the fun factor was high for us there on the day. I can put that on my list of fun London moments.

Never a dull moment in trininista-world! Here is the ad, which was released today and which is why my code of silence is finally broken. You can see the edge of my dress but that's all and I am pretty happy with that. I am not a tv star!

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