Selfie-seeking Instagrammers are ruining the world’s beautiful places

I think calling people in to the conversation instead of calling people out is more effective over time--but I totally get what you mean. It's really hard to sit and watch people ruin things you love. Most of _the outdoors_ are designed to be shared experiences and when people go off-trail in sensitive areas or don't pack out trash it really leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

True. At the same time, travel has gotten so much cheaper and accessible that it’s really impossible to go anywhere and enjoy it in peace. I chose to go to Paris in dead winter to avoid the summer crowds - the lines were not any shorter. It feels like a long time ago but only a few years ago I was visiting a few national parks and the hiking trails were modestly crowded. In comparison they are all overrun now. The difference I’d say is AirBNB. My choices used to be shitty motels or campgrounds that never have space. Now, it’s a beautiful home by a stream just outside the park in a ranch. Shared with a few friends the cost is a fraction of a hotel room. Hotels were - not sure fully intentionally - used as a mechanism to enforce visitor counts. With AirBnB that equation is out the window. With low cost airlines making flights cheaper and better fuel efficient cars making driving cheaper and AirBnB making stay cheaper and inexpensive, the tourism sector is exploding. I do not think this is sustainable. As with the other cases, these things are externalising the cost to the cities and the parks do deal with.

Right, the problem is the “likes” or “views” and comments, whatever metric.

Anonymize (hide) the metrics and watch this attention seeking plunge.

I have no issue with people taking photos, of themselves or otherwise.

What I find irritating are situations where lovely places become semi-professional photo shoots en-masse, where each group are spending hours trying to get the perfect shot, over and over, with lots of time reviewing the footage before deciding again it’s not quite right.

The urge to take photos is weird. I'm travelling at the moment, and it seems everyone's first reaction of seeing something magnificent is... "I've got to take a picture of this!". I'm no exception.

I started asking myself, are we experiencing, or Instagramming?

I agree, people have always been taking photos while traveling or visiting a specific location. Passing blame or shamming individuals for taking selfies does not seem like the proper route to take if there is a problem (which i am not saying there is or isn't). When I was younger I enjoyed taking selfies at spots but as I have aged and studied media in University my perception of the selfie has changed and I think that may be a solution to this - not shamming through articles.

i don't agree with your lion's share blaming (whatever "the problem" translates to - 80%? >50%?) Insta; the person being interviewed also doesn't think Insta is mostly to blame for this

i generally agree with person being interviewed and opine that travel is cheap as hell and the externalities aren't really captured at all - environmental ruin, local destinations ruined for those who actually live there, none of this is accounted for.

one example are bachelor parties in cheapish locales - you're not gonna see most of this on the 'gram, but you can bet the jokers renting the airbnb against local laws are going to be annoying as hell for the people living in the building

i think more and more locales are either going to ban or are going to tax the hell out of this and all it entails (Airbnb, lodging for non-residents, ....). and yeah, sure there are millions of other places in the world, have at it, as long as it's not here - or you're paying out the nose for it, and that $$ is being used to improve local stuff/offset environmental impact

All of my ire is focused on social media, especially instagram. I don't know if it's possible for me to care less about someone I don't know, or barely know, having been somewhere. Finding out what they ate there is even less interesting.

Social media companies love to tell us about how they're bringing the world together or how they let us share our moments and memories with loved ones, etc. But there is something to be said about the comparison between how the generation before us shared these moments vs how we do.

'Back in the day', you would go on holiday, take a camera and a few rolls of film, snap some photos, and then return home. Perhaps a few days later you might find some time to go and get the film developed. You'd return and get your photos, ready to be shared with friends and family. You'd then set a date, you'd call your loved ones and invite them over for dinner or drinks so you could share your experiences and discuss your photos together. It was a face-to-face, real, personal experience.

Contrast that with the rapid-fire creation and consumption of photos on social media today and you can see how these 'moments' have become more trivial and feel less valuable.

I'm not saying one is inherently better than the other. There are pros and cons to both, but something tells me that if we're talking about "connection" between people, about authentic sharing between friends/family, the older way was better.

More often than not, 'liking' photos on social media ends up being a 'quid pro quo' so that you can get a 'like' in return down the line. There have been studies that show us that social media consumption has a negative effect (especially on younger audiences) on the mental wellbeing of users. Friend counts, likes and shares end up becoming a form of gamification where people chase numbers rather than real meaningful connections.

That is how we ended up in this scenario, where users flock to destinations to simply grab a photo, without ever really taking in their surroundings, just so they can keep up with the Joneses online.

Don't get me wrong, I don't completely blame the tech, the biggest part of the problem is the human condition and the ways we behave - and that aspect hasn't really changed much since we used cameras with rolls of film in them to today - we're still the same, attention-seeking people we were before, but the tech today just amplifies these traits.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to go to these places and even taking photos of them, there is something greatly wrong with going to places and not respecting them: leaving rubbish, trespassing, damaging properties. This is very much made worse in the modern day of vain instagrammers because instead of taking photos of things, taking selfies is such a trend more than it ever was, which is causing people to climb into/onto things, tresspass and damage. That is not ok.

A web service that analyzes ig-unpopular locations and then I go there. most people are oblivious to the fact that beauty can be found almost anywhere. many people don't even seem to have a personal concept of aesthetics which goes beyond popularity.

electric fence?

Electric fences are fairly cheap but I suspect you couldn't get away with installing one for the express purpose of dissuading trespassers in much of Europe.

Maybe the EU can institute an Instagram tax to mitigate damage and base it on image geolocation so that the areas more overrun get compensated accordingly.

I was in Amsterdam once and saw a sign in the floor indicating that was a selfie spot. I chuckled. People were waiting in line to use it. Maybe farmers should put signs of where it is allowed (and gives you the best angle) instead of where it is not.

Swiss Alps too and people trampling pastures for selfies. Local farmers have started putting up fake graves and memorials like scarecrows.

The other problem I see here is people going to popular places and being annoyed that other people are there.

> People are visiting cool places and trying to take a cool picture of it.

This is not what they're being publicly shamed for. They're being shamed for trespassing, trampling, damaging the locations and littering.

Well in the case of Maya beach in Thailand, where they have already restricted access, it was having a big environmental impact:

"Today, the almost 5,000 daily visitors to Maya Bay have contributed to the area’s eroding natural beauty, threatening local marine wildlife and sustainability of the ecosystem. Issues like boat anchoring, an excess of pollutants and sunscreen, and irresponsible tourist behaviors have led to a major decline of the coral reef system in the area, according to Andrew Hewett, a spokesperson for the Phi Phi Island Conservation and Preservation Group"

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/this-beach...

https://www.suretravel.co.za/blog/thailand-restricts-mass-to...

And it’s nothing new.

It was just a lot more expensive.

People used to go with their cameras and invite their friends and family to a slide show when they returned for all the same reasons.

Now that the bottom 95% has the wealth and tools to do it, it’s somehow bad and we’re finding ways to keep them out of these experiences that used to be unavailable.

"You like places where millions were murdered by starvation?"

Especially if this was after she saw that huge pile of human hair they have in Auschwitz.

Easy to be shocked by this but some slack can be imaginably cut.

I accidentally went to a concentration camp in the Czech Republic without knowing what I was letting myself in for. Sure the sign said 'concentration camp' but I was just cycling by and in need of an excuse to stop, so I took the turning and went in. I hadn't heard of this one before - it was the one the Nazis showed to the Red Cross to show that all was well when it was not. I wasn't quite teenage at the time, but definitely young and ignorant.

My mistake was to offer to take a photo for some American tourists that were there. They seemed to be taking selfies so I just 'helpfully' offered to click the button for them whilst they 'smiled'.

This was obviously insensitive, but I had just casually arrived at the place with no thought. Meanwhile the tourists I had tried to help had planned this visit for months (if not years) and they had lost their whole extended family in Theresenstadt and other places where 'Arbeit Macht Frei'. There is something iconic about ironwork that says that, an impulse to take a photo definitely exists.

But it is all very different if you go there because 'this place looks interesting' rather than because you have thought it through. I learned as much from getting it wrong with offering to help someone with their camera as I did from seeing the bunk beds and barbed wire. I expect your teenage girl pouting learned a lot too.

They do this in a lot of places, partially to conserve the area and prevent what you described and also as an added safety measure. Over-nighting in the Grand Canyon is a great example. I think it's a good idea in most places where the risk of injury or the risk of trampling is too great.

It's kind of a bummer that you have to plan so far ahead for some things. Grand Canyon permits are done during a 1-week opening 5 months before the calendar month you hike in, for example. It's challenging to organize a group when you have kids, jobs, etc. that could change in that time.

Your point about being present really resonates. When I go out into national parks for a backpack, I’m there to immerse myself in that space. Sometimes I take photos, but never of myself in those places - it’s about preserving what’s imprinted in your mind to look back on later. These photos make great fine art prints that can be given as gifts later on.

The gamification of travel via social capital never sat well with me.

Can you blame them? It's that or working a minimum wage job.. which would you take? Have thousands of followers and make money online or work some miserable job for corporate overlords - the choice is not difficult.

Put up a gate and charge $50 to access the site :)

There was a similar situation in France on a lavender farm where the farmers put a gigantic sign up to ask Instagram to not destroy the fields. It effectively ruined their shots by being unavoidable in the frame.

You could also try to make lemonade here though. If the demand is there offer a private tour of the fields for $40/ea. Let them take better pictures than the roadside people with the sign and make some cash.

You should put up a stand and sell "Sunflower Fields Forever"[0] t-shirts for $30, and bundle it with limited edition "Sunflower Misters" for $50.

[0] - You may or may not receive a cease and desist order from Sony/ATV.