In Defense of the Selfie Stick

From the sophisticated opinion of the trendsetters to Forbes, the Selfie Stick is the recipient of scorn and ridicule.

One of the popular arguments against the Selfie Stick is that you should build the courage to ask a stranger to take a picture of you or your group.

This poses three problems.

First, the courage/imposition problem. Asking a stranger in the street assumes that you will find such a volunteer.

Further, it assumes that the volunteer will have the patience to wait for the perfect shot ("wait, I want the waves breaking" or "Try to get the sign, just on top of me"). And that the volunteer will have the patience to show you the result and take another picture.

Often, the selfista that has amassed the courage to approach a stranger on the street, out of politeness, will just accept the shot as taken. Good or bad.

Except for a few of you (I am looking at you Patrick), most people feel uncomfortable imposing something out of the blue on a stranger.

And out of shyness, will not ask a second stranger for a better shot as long as the first one is within earshot.

I know this.

Second, you might fear for the stranger to either take your precious iPhone 6+ and run, or even worse, that he might sweat all over your beautiful phone and you might need to disinfect it.

Do not pretend like you do not care about this, because I know you do.

Third, and most important, we have the legal aspect.

When you ask someone to take a picture of you, technically, they are the photographer, and they own the copyright of your picture.

This means that they own the rights to the picture and are entitled to copyright protection. The photographer, and, not you, gets to decide on the terms to distribute, redistribute, publish or share the picture with others. Including making copies of it, or most every other thing that you might want to do with those pictures.

You need to explicitly get a license from them, or purchase the rights. Otherwise, ten years from now, you may find yourself facing a copyright lawsuit.

All of a sudden, your backpacking adventure in Europe requires you to pack a stack of legal contracts.

Now your exchange goes from "Can you take a picture of us?" to "Can you take a picture of us, making sure that the church is on the top right corner, and also, I am going to need you to sign this paper".

Using a Selfie Stick may feel awkward, but just like a condom, when properly used, it is the best protection against unwanted surprises.