About

"Selfie Stick" is a term for small camera arm that is used to support a mobile device or camera to take a "selfie" photograph from an extended distance.

Origin

The precursor to the camera arm is commonly known as a monopod^[2]; they were initially used to provide support for cameras, binoculars, firearms and variety of other objects, but later this use evolved into providing extension for camera's in order to obtain difficult angles for shooting. The earliest known use of a monopod to take a selfie photograph was sent to BBC News^[3] by Whitehaven, England resident Alan Cleaver, showing his grandfather taking a photo with his grandmother with a extended pole (shown below). However, many have noted that the "selfie stick" in the picture is simply a pole used to activate the shutter. On April 18th, 2011, the "HDE Extendable Selfie Telescopic Monopod" was placed for sale on Amazon.^[4]

Spread

On November 25th, 2013, the Australian electronics retailer Kogan^[1] began selling a "Zuckerberg Selfie Stick" device, which contains a camera mount and mirror at the end of a long stick to take selfie photographs. On December 24th, the ClipCritics YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring women in bikinis taking video of themselves running on a beach with a selfie stick, which received upwards of 2.07 million views and 300 comments in the next year (shown below).

On May 6th, 2014, YouTuber Alex Chacon uploaded a montage of video clips from his travels around the world taken with a camera mounted on a selfie stick (shown below, left). Within seven months, the video accumulated more than 11 million views and 7,200 comments. On December 3rd, CNN aired a news segment on "South Korea's 'Selfie Stick' Crackdown," which reported that officials in South Korea were discouraging citizens from using the monopod devices (shown below, right).

On December 11th, BuzzFeed^[5] highlighted several examples of selfie stick photographs uploaded to Instagram. The following day, Youtube user KipKay uploaded a video titled "DIY Selfie Stick for camera or GoPro!" in which he shows how to create a DIY selfie stick. On December 23rd, Explosm^[6] published a Cyanide and Happiness webcomic in which a character is beaten to death with a selfie stick (shown below).

Search Interest

According to Google Trends, searches for "selfie stick" started picking up in Jakarta, Indonesia toward the end of 2013.

External References