The 'Dronie' Is the New Selfie

Now that private and commercial drone use is becoming more popular, it seems as good as time as any to integrate the devices into the use of social media.  Enter “the dronie.”

A play on the ubiquitous “selfie” phenomenon, a “dronie” is the use of a privacy-violating flying spy camera to take videos of willing and unwilling(?) people from the vantage point of the sky. Good news for those folks tired of the crude, fish-lipped, pouty, filter-laden self portraits, I suppose.

Twitter leading the pack on the “dronie” and has rolled out a new account, aptly named dronie that will take pictures and videos of the camera-hungry, social-media obsessed public.

Here is the account’s inaugural tweet, involving Sir Patrick Stewart (Why Picard, WHY?)

And with our first official #dronie from #CannesLions, a new bromance is born! cc @SirPatStew @joell https://t.co/ZL5PthcRkh

— Dronie (@dronie) June 15, 2014

The FAA is not happy about the new trend of commercial drone use and maintains that flying a commercial drone requires authorization.  In March, an NTSB judge ruled against the FAA in a case involving drone pilot Raphael Pirker. The agency has appealed the ruling.