Selfie Sticks KOd in Art Museums and Versailles

Today Show "talent" taking a "selfie."
Ironically, Today's studio is alongside the Rockefeller Plaza promenade.
(Image: today.com)

During the year-end holidays, my wife and I walked around Rockefeller Plaza's promenade. What we remembered most from our stroll was a mass of selfie sticks protruding like periscopes on moderately turbulent seas. At the time, I called them "selfie sticks," without realizing the term already existed. My wife performed a quick online search and discovered the truth. That was fine with me, as I wasn't keen on claiming credit for coining the phrase.

The "selfie stick" phenomenon has not been a hit with art museums. According to an Associated Press story appearing in siliconvalley.com, a number of high-profile venues have banned the all-about-me device. Among them are New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, and DC's Smithsonian. New entries among the verboten are the Palace of Versailles, where a selfie in the Hall of Mirrors would produce an image both vulgar and visually perplexing.

The "selfie stick" is merely one aspect of the "selfie shtick" phenomenon. In that context,  Kim Kardashian's book of "selfies" seems fitting, in that someone believed an audience existed for this expression of KK's endless vanity. However, online photo collections of one's "selfies" aren't different from Mrs. Kanye West's enterprise. The difference? Kim Kardashian has simply made money on the product known as "Kim Kardashian."

Anointing the "Selfie Generation"

Image: mashable.com

The "selfie" phenomenon could not simply rest on its dubious laurels. An article in today's online version of the BBC used a headline that included the phrase "the selfie generation." Now an entire age group will endure a characterization that sounds good but means little.

Selfies have been around as long as people have been making images. What's different about this current crop of autoimages is the ability to immediately store and transmit them. At its most shameless, the selfie phenomenon conspires toward vulgarity (witness the tasteless exhibition supposedly groovy world leaders put on during Nelson Mandela's memorial service). At its best? Well, call me when we get there.