Bummer: Selfie Sticks Tossed From Coachella and Lollapalooza

In this era of the self-obsessed photographer, the race is on to see who can post the most insensitive selfie ever. We’ve already seen prime examples of selfies taken at Auschwitz and the Anne Frank House. Apparently, historic places of tragic deaths aren’t a “thing” any more. Now you have to take a selfie at a recent tragedy to be considered cool. That appears to be the reasoning by a group of Iowa tourists who happened to be in New York City’s East Village when a building caught on fire and collapsed. “Quick, let’s take a selfie with firefighters rushing in to save lives in the background!” The local papers rightly dubbed these narcissists as the new “Village Idiots.”

Now comes word that two music festivals that are the very definition of cool and hip are banning the selfie stick. You can still take a selfie at Coachella or Lollapalooza; you just can’t attach your cell phone to a stick. This follows on the heels of places like the Palace of Versailles, Britain’s National Gallery in London and the Colosseum in Rome who also all banned selfie sticks.

Although reps for the music festival declined to comment, they did site safety reasons for the ban on their Twitter feed. Reps from the Ultra Music Festival in Miami were more on point in supporting their selfie stick ban: