In defence of the selfie stick

If there’s one thing that grinds the gears of the angry Twitter masses more than TFL and a brand tweeting a typo, it has to be the selfie stick.

These little inventions have developed a bad rep over the past year or so, you’d think that they’d been spawned by the devil. Admittedly many of our team hated the whole concept of a gadget built to enable Generation Y’s narcissistic tendencies for quite some time. But you know what changed our minds? A few of us actually used them!! I know, I know, actually trying something new before you start laying into it seems ludicrous, but bear with us.

Our editor, Holly Brockwell, depended on one during CES when she was filming on her own, because, well, there’s just no other way to really do it without it looking very Blair Witch Project-esque. The looks she got (from people at a TECH. TRADE. SHOW.) ranged from the way zoo-goers would stare at a tiny, cute, little creature bathing itself, onto the wide-eyed stares onlookers give Dynamo and right through to dirty side-eyes of utter disgust reserved for dictators and serial killers.

But according to many retailers, they’ve been selling like hotcakes over the past year and you only have to search for ‘#selfiestick’ on Instagram to see we have them to thank for more than 300,000 of our snaps.

So Y U SO like marmite, selfie stick? Well, the reason this invention is so assuredly standing the test of time, considering it’s something we all guffawed at months ago, is because it’s answering a question: ‘when I’m alone or with my friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/gran how do I take an awesome photo or video of us without cutting off half our faces or getting one of our arms taking up half the shot?’ The answer: our favourite little narcissism wand.

So if you’re still hating on the whole idea, maybe it’s because the stick is answering a question you’re not asking. You wouldn’t want to do away with glasses just because you haven’t got sight problems or say good riddance to cars just because you live in a city and don’t drive. (Yes selfie sticks are just as important as cars and glasses). And, I hate to break it to you, but the same goes for selfie sticks.

Take a trip to the lamest of tourist attractions or London Bridge after 10am and you’ll see many of them out in the wild. Whether they have you breathing a sigh of relief because they swoop in to save all your selfie-related emergencies or whether your blood is boiling just seeing their names written here (SELFIE STICK SELFIE STICK SELFIE STICK) it seems like they’re well and truly here to stay.

Image via R4vi’s Flickr account.