I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how common it is for people to get their phones out and take pictures and videos these days. Like someone does something crazy on a train, or says something funny, or a big incident happens, and there are like 10 people with their phones out, and I started wondering, have you ever had an instance where you were scrolling around online, or watching the news on the TV and randomly seen yourself as a passer by in the background of a news report, or in a viral video???
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It wasn’t me that I saw, but my grandad. He passed away nearly 2 years ago. I wanted to post something to my grandma as a surprise and couldn’t remember her house number. I went on Google Streetview to check it and there was my grandad pottering around his garage doing his woodwork.
Yep, I’m on Google Earth.
TBH I knew it was going to happen sooner or later as I saw the mapping car drive past – but it’s still a little odd to suddenly find yourself there.
Not on video but in a picture on a news article. It was PS5 release day and there were large queues (although they appeared larger than they were due to social distancing).
I’m on Google Street View and also in a crowd shot of a concert I went to on Tuesday.
Yeah, we flew into NYC when the ebola thing happened a few years ago. Didn’t notice the cameras as the airport was busy but seeing ourselves walk past on the local evening news was quite surprising
Yes. During the clap for carers thing I was caught by the BBC on tape and used in a news segment. They recycled the same clapping bit for the queens speech on Covid
I worked at a rock club in the 90s. I recently YouTubed gigs at time to see if I was picked up. Alas no. But it was nostalgic.
Me and my Dad were in the background of a BBC News report about a fire brigade pay dispute in the 1990s. We were walking past a protest in London on our way to the Passport Office. Didn’t even know we’d been filmed till we saw ourselves on the screen.
Yes! A friend of a friend once pointed out that we could be seen quite clearly walking past the camera in a Korean pop music video. At last check it had about 6m views on YouTube haha.
Edit: the song is called Lonley by Hyolyn. I’m the gormless looking twat at 3.16.
On a random afternoon mid-week, having had a quiet day with work I put the telly on and started scrolling through the channels. Stopped at a programme called Vet on the Hill and I just walked past with my dog. It was at a dog show at a fete and I didn’t realise they were filming it. Was freaky that I happened to be scrolling just at the moment I walked past
Not necessarily randomly but I am extremely visible in the highlights for England-Albania at Wembley from last year. I’m like the only one in a yellow jack in our section of the stand. My friend won tickets so we had seats behind the Albanian dug out and you can see me from a mile off.
Something like late 90s they filmed a bit in one of the IT rooms of my school for some news thing, rows of us using the PCs. No real surprise about the brief news appearance, but a while later the same clip was used for a joke on Have I Got News For You with a porn-like picture superimposed on each of the visible PC screens.
I was filmed (incidentally) getting off a train by local news, and then they ended up using the clip for any train-related piece for about a year. It was really annoying because I was giving mega-bitch face at the people trying to push their way on to the train before everyone got off, and I didn’t see the camera until I was already off.
I saw my own song as someone’s tinder anthem when I first started making music. Felt pretty good
Yep – Went past a load of cameras outside my school, I ended up on BBC News at 6!
My mum once text me saying me and my ex went past the camera on the news once
yes i was in the background of a news item on thameslink walking past. unfortunately i was skiving that day. lol.
So I wrote an article on Slashdot about UFOs and a hacker who claimed to have seen evidence of their existence. Nothing special really.
A year later I read about how someone did a FOI request for everything NASA knew about UFOs and the only thing that came out of it was the article I wrote which was cached on their servers somewhere.
Yes actually. There was a really cool bus stop advert in London once, near Tottenham court road. It was a pass-through camera feed of the pavement behind it, so the advert looked transparent. The software then edited in a meteorite strike or alien invasion over the cityscape. It was quite cool advert, and there was a TV crew doing a piece on it.
I stormed past in a huff as they were blocking the pavement. Saw myself that evening on the news (briefly)
Maybe, there was a meme video shared of someone that looked just like me being silly. I half remember it being filmed too. However, cannot confirm identity of this person. Possible doppelgänger about.
Not me but my husband. His friend did a go fund me page when he was about 11 called something like “get sam his skinz back” as he’d been scammed on counterstrike or something. Idubbbz did a video on gofundme pages and that popped up. He saw it about 5-6 years after the video was posted. Pretty cool pretty cool
I am in a video Metallica put on their YouTube channel of a gig that I went to, so not really random
However one time I was at a pub in Norwich and I saw a famous YouTuber there. I didn’t go say hi but weeks later I stumbled across one of his vlogs doing a day out in my city and I am in the background of the video for a very brief moment. Quite strange I happened upon that video and saw myself in it
Sky sports news on the pitch at a football match
I was in a documentary about cattle decapitation. Close up right on my face and I didn’t know it was being filmed.