Disaster selfie: This is the new Selfie trend against the backdrop of macabre locations.

THE "dark tourism"It has always been popular with those with quirky tastes, but the proliferation of social media has given birth to another 'monster':disaster selfie", As it is now characterized.

Βmoth in the jungle of Bali, in the Trunyan cemetery where the dead rest in bamboo cages and can be touched. At the Chernobyl thermal power plant in Ukraine, especially after the sensational HBO TV series.

At Grenfell Tower in London, which was destroyed by fire. In these places - and similar - tourists flock and, in a rage, indulge in the popular sport of tourists today: taking selfies.

^{Grenfell Tower residents asked passersby to stop taking selfies while the Tower was burning.}

"People gain a degree of social credibility with this because it shows that the person being pushed pushes themselves to the limits in a way that the rest of us typically do not," explains social scientist Karen Correia da Dilva of consulting firm Canvas8.

^{Even the author of the "Chernobyl" series made a public speech about the disrespectful selfies of a growing number of tourists.} 

In an article entitled "Dark Tourism, Heterotopias and Post-Apocalyptic Places: The Case of Chernobyl, Written in 2013, Philip Stone, executive director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research, argues that Chernobyl attraction and other destinationsdark tourism»Lies«in the confrontations of the real and the familiar with the surreal and the foreign", Something that allows tourists"to consume not only a sense of tragic beauty and embarrassment but also a sense of anxiety and misunderstanding in a place that is petrified and where our world is mirrored».

«We try to educate people and remind them that this is a place of destruction and a sad place for Ukrainians, but it is their moral choice - if they want to take a selfie, we can not stop them.Says Sergii Ivanchuck, founder of the Ukrainian tour agency SoloEast, which organizes visits to Chernobyl.

Fascinated by places associated with war and disaster, and having already visited Dunkirk, Auschwitz and the like, Fiona Barnes - who describes herself as "history nerd"- insists that"these are places for mute meditation. You should go there for the right reasons, instead of going because it is "in fashion". These are not holiday destinations with lots of fun activities».

Of course, Fiona Barnes was not consulted by the hugely popular YouTube account Logan Paul, who last year posted videos of himself and friends grinning as they walked past a tree in Japan's Aokigahara forest where a desperate man had hung.

Source