How Instagram Ruined Chernobyl…Again.

In 2019, HBO’s “Chernobyl” mini-series exploded in popularity, directly causing a huge increase in tourism in and around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. But this wasn’t just another social media gold rush. It was dangerous. This [HALF-LIFE HISTORY] is the story from the inside.

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😎: Kyle
✂: Charles Shattuck
🤖: @Claire Max
🎼: Mëydan

[kylehill]

This is one of our last videos from Chernobyl, but it's no less impactful, I think. As for me...I'll be filming in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone later this month...

[captainteamcarry]

Setting up fake skeletons and scenarios to "increase fright factor" while simultaneously ignoring the actual danger of radiation is somehow the most human thing I've heard of.

[pineapplepotato]

Just imagine being on a plane, not knowing that someone on your flight has a highly radioactive object from chernobyl in their carry on luggage. Imagine being a kid living in the same house as that item in the closet by your room and getting cancer and never knowing that it could be linked to something as vain and arrogant as a stolen item from a disaster site where people lost everything. It’s so disgusting.

[anastasiyaivanova]

I remember back when I was a kid, way before the HBO series and even before Instagram was a thing, my older half-brother expressed in front of my dad (who was one of the engineer liquidators, did two rotations at Chernobyl over a couple of years) his desire to visit the place some time. My dad said: "Don't. Just don't. But if you go regardless, buy a Geiger counter, only go in the dead of winter when everything's under snow with little dust, and, for the love of god, do not touch ANYTHING." I don't think he ever made that trip.

But it's so wild to me that people would just TAKE stuff from a radioactive zone.

[rainmanslim]

I went to Chernobyl in 2017, I was too scared of radiation poisoning that I never took off my plastic hazmat suit and respirator. The tour guide saw this and said "this man takes the danger seriously"

[michalkubik]

I was in Chernobyl almost 2 years ago. It was a two day tour, first day around the zone and second day in Pripyat. The rules were very clear. No touching, drinking or eating. Avoiding puddles of water. Long sleeves and no shorts. There were a lot of dogs, that we were allowed to pet, but had to wash our hands with water right afterwards. We also had to have a small dosimeter on our necks, to confirm, that the guide wasn't taking us to any highly contaminated areas. And every time leaving the exclusion zone, we had to go through wholebody radiation monitor. So I would say, that it really depends on the responsibility of the tour guides and the very tourists.

[tzeneth]

I've wanted to visit Chernobyl to kind of see it and get a look at a place abandoned by humans but the fact that people are touching and going into places that are unsafe for pictures is insane. You treat that place with a lot of respect because it can be both dangerous and is something you want to preserve.

[shrkheart]

"Boots that have been taken out of a basement."
My eyes immediately widened when I heard that, someone is probably going to win a Darwin award for that.

[anthavoc_]

The Stalkers that clean up the mess left by tourists is actually really honorable, then again everything else done is illegal.

[polythewicked]

And this is why science education is so important. People need to understand the risks even if it’s just on a basic level.

[thebluenaga]

One of my biggest fears is that the disrespect and modern trends are going to end up destroying history itself.

[bbotelhoHI]

The sorrow you feel about tourism in Chernobyl is an everyday reality in Hawaii. I don’t have a problem with tourism, as you said, it’s good for the economy in general. I just wish tourists were more respectful of the place they are visiting.

[TinyFlyThing]

My husbands elderly dad (russian) was one of the liquidators cleaning up after the disaster and we lived close enough (a few countries over to the west) that the cancer rate in our villages rose noticeably after it happened (and we were discourage to go foraging in the woods by our government for many years) AND IT'S WILD TO ME people want to visit this place.
Leave it alone. This is so disrespectful, not only to the actual place and the people trying to preserve it, but also to the people who were affected by this TO THIS DAY.

[BlueRaptorNightFury]

To be honest, to hear Stalkers are in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone... I'm impressed but to hear there are Stalkers trying to ward off tourists from doing damage by graffiti or some ways and Stalkers repairing the damage by both sides is terrifying.

[nagasadow]

What pisses me off about this is the people that stole things from the site, aside from being complete an utter morons, are not only endangering their own health, but if they decide maybe taking a radioactive boot or whatever wasn't such a good idea. They're just going to throw it away, so somebody else who has to deal with the trash and the trash processing is going to be exposed as well, getting others sick.

[deaddwives]

12:39 when I heard this my jaw actually dropped. Firefighters boots? Like the ones that were piled up in rooms because they were so radioactive? No thanks. No. Taking something like that is actually insane.

[Blairibus]

11:46 That photo sickens me. Imagine being so egotistical that your own vanity is more important than the history and danger that surrounds you.

[PNolandS]

It is truly astonishing to me that people can watch "Chernobyl" and be so influenced by it that they feel the desperate need to visit the site, and yet NOT have been influenced enough to realize that it's not only disrespectful, but dangerous!

Edit for clarification: When I say visiting Chernobyl is disrespectful, I don’t mean that the act of going there is disrespectful. I’m mostly talking about the people who are taking stupid and tasteless pictures whilst also possibly screwing around with items they shouldn’t be touching. As an example, you don’t go to the 9/11 memorial to take fun selfies, you go there to learn about what happened, remember the lives that were lost or impacted, and gain a new perspective on the events that took place. In my opinion there is absolutely a way to set up tours of the exclusion zone that could be respectful and safe, but that isn’t what’s being shown.

[RealMicsta]

I love that, even in real life, the Stalkers are the true, shadowy defenders of the Zone, from all menaces within, and here especially, without.

[SilentKnight]

This is genuinely sad, to think that there are people that would go to a museum essentially and just take something without thinking of the impact that the incident had and what that item could do to them or others...😔