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posted by n1 on Saturday May 03 2014, @07:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the official-graduation-photos-only-$199 dept.

ABC News reports:

Toss your cap. Turn your tassel. Just don't snap that selfie.

Graduates at the University of South Florida and Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., have been asked to refrain from taking self-portraits with their cell phones as they collect their diplomas.

Administrators at both USF and Bryant said their intentions were far less dramatic than making a statement about a generation often accused of oversharing, that they were simply trying to keep already long ceremonies from dragging on even longer.

It does raise the questions, should other institutions adopt a ban on selfies in certain situations, provided they do so legally? And, would it be beneficial to explicitly state the dangers of over-sharing as rationale for the selfie ban? I think it would.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Horse With Stripes on Saturday May 03 2014, @08:00AM

    by Horse With Stripes (577) on Saturday May 03 2014, @08:00AM (#39183)

    as they collect their diplomas.

    The key to this is "as". They can take all the selfies they want, just not up on stage as they are receiving their dioloma.

    And yes, any event or establishment can establish rules regarding the taking of photographs with or without a cel lphone.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 03 2014, @01:15PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday May 03 2014, @01:15PM (#39222) Homepage

      Feel free to mod this offtopic since I'm posting it here for visibility, but that story was my submission! I submitted it not logged in but has put my username in the "name" field!

      Either it was an honest mistake by an exhausted editor, or they're caving to the hate mail and redacting my name from my submissions, haha!

      • (Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday May 03 2014, @05:09PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 03 2014, @05:09PM (#39274)
        Professional troll needs attention!
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Saturday May 03 2014, @02:11PM

      by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Saturday May 03 2014, @02:11PM (#39239)

      Shame the rule "don't be a self-absorbed prick in front of hundreds of people" isn't implicit. Never mind graduations, it'd make television so much better.

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday May 03 2014, @08:07AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday May 03 2014, @08:07AM (#39185) Journal

    You know, a lot of students who attend graduation ceremonies are not actually graduating, since they forgot to actually pass their courses. This is why the Diploma cases are empty. So the last thing we want is actual evidence, photographically, that they did actually graduate.

    Either that, or it is to protect the monopoly of the **&*(^*% Official Photographer who will send you proofs that you can buy for only a million times what your selfie costs. My god, after that whole thing with the textbook publishers screwing students over with monopoly prices for pieces of crap, to hit them at the end with a ban on your own photographs!! It is like those museums that prohibit photography, but have postcard available in the lobby!! Except, it is a photograph of you! You no longer own you! Your school has sold your image, as you are graduating, to a mercenary with a camera! Oh, the pain! Oh the Horror!! Oh the Humanity! And Oh the Intellectual Property violations! Ouch! (I am tired now. )

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 03 2014, @09:09AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Saturday May 03 2014, @09:09AM (#39194) Journal

      The photographer mercenary which works for the NaZi-A front takes your picture and uploads to the facebook such that suckerberg can sell your biometric data and the photographer company can rape your wallet for the job. Next everybody laugh at your ugly face or whatever reason they can come up with. But if you do anything about it, you will be slapped with jail time. Then the university put up a alumina photo catalogued with said photos and careless links via face identification and name matching to all photographs other people took of you in less than flattering situations.

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:39AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:39AM (#39201) Journal

        Um. that is what I was saying, but evidently I have not been as traumatized as you. Sorry it didn't work out. Maybe a nice picture of some flowers instead.

        (Slowly. Slowly.. Stepping.... Away ......)

        • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:45AM

          by kaszz (4211) on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:45AM (#39203) Journal

          Don't worry. Just a sarcasm on the current insanity ;)

          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:49AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday May 03 2014, @10:49AM (#39206) Journal

            Whew! For a minute there, I thought that, maybe, you might have actually graduated! Thanks for the reassurance! (And, nice knowing two of us here are not insane! Strength in numbers! )

            • (Score: 3, Funny) by Ryuugami on Saturday May 03 2014, @11:08AM

              by Ryuugami (2925) on Saturday May 03 2014, @11:08AM (#39207)

              "Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane." -- Philip K. Dick

              --
              If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
    • (Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Saturday May 03 2014, @11:36AM

      by Angry Jesus (182) on Saturday May 03 2014, @11:36AM (#39210)

      > Either that, or it is to protect the monopoly of the **&*(^*% Official Photographer who will
      > send you proofs that you can buy for only a million times what your selfie costs.

      That's what I was thinking. Graduation ceremonies are for the kids and their families, nobody else gives a damn. I skipped all of mine because I preferred to sleep in late. But if it is important enough to the graduates to show up, them they deserve to document it in the common fashion.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03 2014, @01:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03 2014, @01:32PM (#39229)

      Either that, or it is to protect the monopoly of the **&*(^*% Official Photographer who will send you proofs that you can buy for only a million times what your selfie costs.

      Yeah, probably a money-making conspiracy. Certainly nothing to do with extending the graduation ceremony by 5 seconds times 1000 graduates equals an hour and a half. Nor probably anything to do with the right of people other than you to record a decorous and formal ceremony.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Saturday May 03 2014, @05:12PM

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 03 2014, @05:12PM (#39275)
      Yeah that makes way more sense than wanting to avoid doubling the length of the most boring part of the ceremony.
      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Oligonicella on Saturday May 03 2014, @02:38PM

    by Oligonicella (4169) on Saturday May 03 2014, @02:38PM (#39249)

    But in the right circumstance. There were over seven hundred other graduates along with me. Multiply that by five seconds to snap that poorly executed vanity shot and that's about an additional hour. I didn't even go to the graduation. Waste of time. You still get your diploma.

    And evidence? Yeah, right. Like no one can Photoshop.