Better than a museum ban: Let’s follow selfie stick etiquette

Selfies, and increasingly selfie sticks, have become a global addiction, particularly among travelers who want to capture the Eiffel Tower or Taj Mahal without asking a passer-by to snap their photo.

Love it or hate it, selfie culture is here to stay.

Museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens in Washington, D.C., have out-and-out banned selfie sticks.

The Louvre in Paris, however, the world’s most visited museum, hasn’t yet said no to the camera-mount stick that extends the selfie range of your smartphone.

But maybe the answer isn’t more bans but more selfie awareness.

For those in need of help, Google “selfie stick etiquette” and you’ll find a number of common-sense rules that should do the trick.

Lilian Min writes on a website called Hello Giggles:

--Don’t use selfie sticks in crowded, narrow places, especially indoors.

--Selfie sticks won’t make difficult photos any less difficult.

--Don’t use a selfie stick when your regular reach will do.

--Accept that nobody will love your selfie stick as much as you do (even if they benefit from it).

The website Fusion says the selfie stick “is facing a global crackdown.” It offers these three rules for stick users:

--Stay out of the way.

--Use it sparingly.

--Never, ever make a phone call with the selfie stick still attached. (And really, once you see the photo they posted, you’ll never do it.)