Monday, March 30, 2015

Maria's 2nd Blog Post: Disaster Tourism


Last week in NYC, an apartment building collapsed in East Village from a gas explosion, injuring 22 people and killing 2 more. The cameras that were on site were not only those of news stations.
 
Soon after the explosion, seven women gathered around a selfie stick to take a group photo, the explosion being the backdrop of the selfie. Not only was the time and place terribly planned, the women were smiling. If you had any faith left in humanity, this selfie dissipated any hopes. The tasteless photo was plastered across the New York Post with the title “Village Idiots” (seen above.) People were outraged. One commenter on Twitter tweeted “Absolutely disgusting” while another said “Everything that’s wrong with NYC summed up in one in one photo.”

The selfies don’t stop there.
 
 
The picture above shows Christina Freundlich throwing up a peace sign in front of the explosion site, again smiling. Comments included “WTF is wrong with you?” and “I can only imagine how the families of those two missing people must feel right now” (the two people mentioned were announced dead.) After she took down her Instagram photo, she released a statement apologizing for her careless actions.

The fact that both photos are of women gives insight to which gender typically is more active on social media. Selfies are usually taken where one is smiling which can explain why both selfies show the women dong so. Nevertheless, both photos were taken carelessly and are offensive, especially to the families of those that were a part of the incident. Has selfie culture gone too far?

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