Would You Support Banning The Selfie?

Would You Support Banning The Selfie? - Selfies, wefies, groufies – they are all part of the social media equation now. More so for your vacay photos.

There’s even a National Selfie Day on June 21 which for some reason has morphed into an international one before you could say cheese or whatever you mouth or pout during your selfies.

Oyster Worldwide (gap year and career break travel specialists) launched a campaign after National Selfie Day – #DitchTheSelfie – to encourage travellers to ditch the selfie in favour of truly enjoying the moment. Although the premise applies to all aspects of life, not just travel.

Since launching, the campaign has had 1,113 (at last count) people pledge their support, including notable travel bloggers Escaping Abroad and Travel Dudes, along with model Nora Gouma.

Brooklyn Beckham recently banned selfies too, at his photography book launch.

The campaign comes after research found that millennials choose their holiday destination based on “Instagrammability”.

Many landmarks, buildings, attractions and even cities have taken to banning selfies.

And sadly travel selfies continue to reach ever more dangerous heights, with multiple deaths being reported due to risky selfies.

Oyster Worldwide’s own research found that at least 51% take up to 10 selfies in a one-week holiday, while 35% said they feel happy if someone likes their holiday selfie on social media!

And 35% of 18-25 year olds feel pressured to get a good selfie on holiday (25% in general) while 39% would feel disappointed or embarrassed if their selfies didn’t get any interactions on social media.

When polled on what’s an important factor in getting a good selfie, 25% said they need to look happy; background looks good and doing an interesting activity are tied at 17%; and 14% say they need to look nice!

Will we see the day when taking a selfie is equivalent to social-media suicide? Smile and snap if you agree.