Prism Decision Systems

  • Email
  • RSS
  • HOME
  • SCHOOLUTIONS
    • Vision, mission and core beliefs
    • Targets, priorities and strategies
    • School improvement planning
  • TOOLS
    • Dynamic Group Process
    • Group Decision Support Systemâ„¢
    • Shared Decision-Making
  • DECISION SUPPORT
    • Strategic Planning
    • Decision Support
  • THE EIGHT KEYS
    • Buy Now
    • Reader Praise for the Eight Keys
  • BLOG
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • ABOUT
    • Client List
    • Papers
    • Readings
You are here: Home / Travelog / Selfie-seekers are Instatrashing our beautiful places

09/19/2019 by Sean Brady

Selfie-seekers are Instatrashing our beautiful places

Suddenly, every where you go selfie-seeking narcissists are disrespecting, trampling, and Instatrashing our most beautiful places. Every technology comes with costs and benefits. And right now national parks and monuments are paying a very steep price due to the lemming-like obsession with posting selfies to social media.

Instatrashing
The scene at 6.30 a.m. at Moraine Lake.

After a recent wild flower bloom, an LA Times headline captured the problem succinctly: Instagram-hungry crowds are destroying the super bloom.

But you don’t have to read the LA Times to experience Instatrashing. Just visit a beautiful place. Recently, my wife and I hiked for over 100 miles in the Canadian Rockies. We were privileged to share extraordinary trails with other hikers and experience jaw-dropping views of mountains, glaciers, alpine lakes, canyons and abundant wildlife.

We also encountered plenty of Instratrashing.

The woman in the overflow parking lot on the Trans-Canada Highway who sold us tickets for the 6.30 a.m. bus to Moraine Lake told us there’s a surprising number of people who get off the bus, go the to the “selfie-spot,” take their photo, post it to Instagram, and then get right back on the bus.

Instatrashing defined

Instatrashing (v): travelling to a beautiful place for the sole purpose of taking a selfie, posting it to Instagram with location data, and thereby encouraging others to do the same.

At Peyto Lake, there were huge crowds, so we walked about a mile down a trail to a beautiful promontory where there were a handful of others quietly enjoying the astonishing beauty of the lake and its glacier…

…until the professional Instatrash photo shoot commenced. The obnoxious photographer wouldn’t stop talking loudly and the model repeated over and over for all to hear: “Make sure you highlight my beautiful eyes.” When the photographer broke to change lenses, she’d start taking selfies with her iPhone. We and the others previously enraptured with the scene couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

A few years ago in Yellowstone, we witnessed a woman chasing an elk with her iPad. Havasu Falls. Mount Marcy. The Wave. Examples abound.

Hey, there’s nothing wrong with using Instagram; however, I have a real problem with Instatrashing. There’s a generation of narcisists out there destroying beautiful places for their own gratification.

We all have a role

The whole experience has caused me to reflect on my own behavior. I have decided I will never again post location data or hashtags of really beautiful places, and I’m thinking of taking down some blog posts I have written about lesser know but stunning locations.

I hope you will consider doing the same.

Share this post:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Pinterest
  • Print

Related

Filed Under: Travelog

Like What You’re Reading? Subscribe Today!

Contact

[email protected]
607.727.1088

Buy Now!

You Are What You Decide is now available in paperback and for all e-Readers.

BLOG: SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Blog: recent posts

Resilience in three steps: endure, adapt & thrive

How to run successful virtual decision-making meetings

The power of Amazon’s press release and FAQ protocol

Leadership during a pandemic: Joseph McShane, S.J.

Prism deploys virtual decision-making service

Blog: all posts

Recent tweets

BLOG: SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Some home page icons courtesy,
The Noun Project

Contact

Sean Brady
President
Prism Decision Systems, LLC
[email protected]
607.727.1088
Skype: PrismDecision
Twitter: @prismdecision

 

Search this website

Connect

  • Email
  • RSS

Copyright © 2021 · Prism Decision Systems, LLC · [email protected]