聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 With people always carrying a camera in the form of a smart phone, selfies have become the new norm. Out with friends, take a selfie. On a trip, take a selfie. At a sporting event, take a selfie.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Are there times that selfies shouldn鈥檛 be the 鈥渋t鈥� thing?
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Recently in the news and on social media there are two topics of potentially inappropriate selfies, and in my opinion they are inappropriate, but each to their own.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The two big topics up for debate are Funeral Selfies and Holocaust Selfies. Funderal selfies involve people attending a funeral and taking a photo of themselves with the deceased person in their casket in the background.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Which, I guess if the family is alright with it, that鈥檚 fine, but it just seems odd to me to do that and post it to social media. If it鈥檚 a grieving process intended to help the individual through their loss, fine. But, I honestly don鈥檛 understand why people would take the selfie and post it on any form of social media. Like I鈥檓 going to Snapchat a selfie and let people know I鈥檓 at someone鈥檚 funeral. I think not.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Holocaust Selfies are the other topic up for debate on the Internet currently. Millions of people died during the Holocaust at death camps and work camps. Memorials have since been built to remember those whose lives were taken. At these memorials people have been taking selfies. In words, it doesn鈥檛 seem that bad, but an Israeli satirist and author, Shahak Shapira, created a website which took selfies at memorials and photoshopped the people in the picture into photos taken during the aftermath of the death camps.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Seeing the photoshopped product, I was actually a little bit sick to my stomach.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Shapira stated that 鈥淎bout 10,000 people visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe every day. Many of them take goofy pictures, jump, skate, or bike on the 2,711 concrete slabs of the 19,000 meter squared large structure.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淭he exact meaning and role of the Holocaust Memorial are controversial. To many, the grey stelae symbolize gravestones for the six million Jews that were murdered and buried in mass graves, or the grey ash to which they were burned to in the death camps.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Granted the world has changed and many people are disconnected with the past. I鈥檓 sure they take pictures on the beaches of Normandy where the D-Day invasion took place and I think I remember we took a class photo at Vimy Ridge 鈥� all smiling 鈥� when we went there for its 90th ceremony. The gravity of the situation though still affected us, we knew there were roped off sections where we were warned live explosives could still potentially be and the pockmarked landscape was covered in green grass and trees, but it had once been flat.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 So, maybe those people taking the photos understand the gravity of what occurred there, I know it was a very somber day when we were at Vimy Ridge, but at the same time taking a goofy picture would have been highly inappropriate.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 What do you think? Is there a time when selfies shouldn鈥檛 be the norm? It鈥檚 a different time in the world, where selfies do seem to be taken everywhere鈥� but, perhaps there are a few places where people should respectfully choose not to pull out their phone for a selfie.
