I don't know how much you go to the gym these days but it was getting to be ridiculous how many people are recording themselves for some sort of online content. I have witnessed people getting upset that someone walks in front of their tripod and although I wasn't there for it, there were some stills of CCTV footage of a fight that started out over someone walking in front of a recording that someone was doing.
The above image is about a really good article that I read about how gyms all over the world are starting to ban filming yourself or others while working out. People are still doing it of course even though they are aware it is against policy and recently I was lifting and a girl started setting up her tripod right in front of the sign that said you are not allowed to do that and the staff came and told her to stop it or she would be asked to leave. She claimed ignorance but I think we all know what is really going on here, she wanted to record herself filming in front of the sign that says that you are not allowed to do exactly that.
People like Joey Swole constantly point out obnoxious people who film at gyms and then these people have the audacity to shout at other people who step in their shots. They didn't know they were filming because I think most normal people go to the gym to work out, not to be walking on eggshells to ensure they don't mess up someone's TikTok.
The ironic thing about Joey calling people out for this is the fact that he himself got to be famous as an influence by essentially doing the same thing that they are doing, he just got there first and no longer needs to do content like that in order to maintain his brand. Pot meet kettle!
I am glad that he does it though because there have been times that I have been in the background of someone else that is filming themselves and I really don't want to end up on someone else's reel or whatever the hell it is called when you post something to social media.
I realize that it is unrealistic to expect these people to have their own home gyms and even if they did film there they wouldn't have the sort of equipment that a fully stocked gym has and therefore their content wouldn't be terribly useful to their potential subscribers. I was fine with people filming until they took it too far and were attempting to film during peak hours and then there was the trend where people were actually seeking out others that were working out "incorrectly" and then mocking them online.
When my gym banned tripods and livestreaming I think they knew that this was going to be an uphill battle because basically everyone is using their phones between sets and how are you going to determine who is filming and who is just doomscrolling?
I don't think that any of this would be necessary if people were just a lot more civil than they actually are. I think a little bit of common courtesy would have been able to sort this thing out without there actually being any mandates or rules being made. I think that there are just a ton of people out there that are all chasing internet clout and unfortunately for a lot of people doing something outrageous would get them noticed a lot faster. I don't participate a great deal in any of this and wouldn't even know where to begin but I don't have the right kind of personality to intentionally inconvenience or insult other people.
Another article that I read is a testimonial about a situation that actually has happened to me where someone was using the weight stack of one machine to hold his phone up filming him on another machine and then got a bit huffy with me when the phone fell over because I was using this machine. He wasn't a dick about it and some of this might be because I had headphones on and was substantially larger than he was. I could see him throw his hands up in the air like he was annoyed as if I had done something wrong.
I look at my phone between sets as well but the people who are using public gyms as a stage of sorts complete with microphones as they narrate what they are doing is super distracting and some of the roided out dudes started to get confrontational with these people and while I do not like harassment of anyone at the gym I was kind of happy that these bodybuilders did what they did.
So the gym that I go to will likely lose a few customers because of this but the customers they are losing are exactly the kind of people that I don't want in my gym anyway, so that is just fine by me. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!