Epic Selfie Shaming': Seven Ladies Took Advantage of a Tragedy to Snap Photos. They Probably Never Expected to Wind Up on the Cover of the New York Post.

Now may be the time to retire your "selfie stick" — or at least learn when it's tasteless to use it.

The New York Post's Sunday cover blasted a group of women who snapped a selfie in front of a developing tragedy in Manhattan's East Village, giving the women a blunt title: "Village Idiots."

Today's Cover https://t.co/3UObzl3ZMA pic.twitter.com/iceVaaw2f9

— New York Post (@nypost) March 29, 2015

The photo popped up on Twitter in the aftermath of a massive Thursday explosion in New York City that destroyed three buildings, injured dozens and started a fire.

Many expressed shock that the septet of smiling ladies would pose for a selfie as fiery chaos raged behind them.

Friday night #eastvillage @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/8OpG1d6mPy

— EventPhotosNYC (@Eventphotosnyc) March 28, 2015

Please tell me this isn't real and is in fact a cleverly photoshopped parody of awful Millennials. pic.twitter.com/cjGM0Bck8i

— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) March 28, 2015

Selfie culture must be destroyed pic.twitter.com/4zot1pVZXu

— Zach Hanover (@zhanover) March 29, 2015

The people gracing the Post's cover weren't the only one snapping selfies in front of the flames — they were joined by Christina Freundlich, who reportedly took a selfie in front of the fire Thursday and then set her social media accounts to private when the backlash hit, and a Univision reporter who had to put himself in the picture.

A reporter for @Univision snaps a selfie while covering East Village fire pic.twitter.com/ghuqyNPrEW

— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew)

 

March 26, 2015

The reactions on Twitter to the selfie-takers seemed uniformly negative, and many praised the Post for its "epic selfie shaming."

Epic selfie shaming. Give the Post the public service Pulitzer right now. RT @nypost https://t.co/YDWlRqjDVI pic.twitter.com/CD8HX0ncpz

— J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) March 29, 2015

(H/T: Mediaite)

—

Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter