It draws the ire of boomers everywhere – and, like canned coffee, we have Japan to thank for it. The selfie stick turns 40 this month. But the ubiquitous invention didn’t get its proper due when it first debuted.
A worldwide phenomenon
With the advent of Instagram and other social media, the selfie stick has become a worldwide phenomenon. And not everyone’s happy with that.
It’s hard to argue with the invention’s usefulness. Selfie sticks extend a user’s arm-reach so they can take self-portraits without the inconvenience and hassle of having friends. With the advent of YouTube, they’ve also become a useful tool for taking videos out and about town.
In the mid-2010s, a small rebellion mounted against the devices. Mainly complained they were the product of a self-obsessed, narcissistic culture. Younger generations dismissed this as boomer criticism and fired back that there was nothing wrong with a little self-love.
None of the criticism seems to have blunted adoption. According to one research report, selfie sticks are a $750 million a year market that’s growing by a steady 3% year over year. So, if you’re looking for an offbeat side hustle, “selfie stick manufacturer” may be right up your alley.
None of the rage in 1983
But while the selfie stick took off with social media, the first one appeared well before that – all the way back in 1983.
The Minolta DISC7 shipped with the now iconic device a full 40 years ago. This was back in the days when cameras used something called “film”. Disk film was a Kodak invention that eliminated the era’s cumbersome film canisters in lieu of something that resembled something from Tron. The disk was easier to load and unload than a canister and resulted in a thinner camera profile. The now-defunct Minolta was the first company to sell disk camera technology in Japan.
Disk film never caught on with consumers due to its low quality. Neither did Minolta’s “extender”. Yamamoto Kazuo of the JCII Camera Museum says it was an invention ahead of its time.
“Cameras back then were film, not digital,” he told SPA! magazine. Film had to be developed after the fact, which meant “you couldn’t verify a picture you just took. And you couldn’t delete a pic that didn’t turn out, so you’d have to pay to develop your mistakes too.”
It wasn’t until the combined arrival of digital cameras and social media that the selfie stick’s usefulness became apparent.
Selfie sticks abound today, including ones that contain automatic stabilizers to eliminate the all-too-human bumps and jostles that come from holding a camera airborne. You can even use drones to get the job done.
It goes to show that all good ideas will eventually have their day…whether we like it or not.
What to read next
In Praise of the Japanese Toilet Seat
Sources
Love It Or Hate It, The Selfie Stick Is Still An Obsession. CBS News Colorado
Selfie Stick Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022–2027. imarc
実は40年前に誕生していた自撮り棒。「日本の無駄な発売品」と海外で嘲笑されるも. SPA!
Disc film. Wikipedia
