I went to see sunrise (and spend the day at) Angkor Wat in December, and have a rather different perspective to the OP.
Sure - there were lots of people crowded around a similar spot at sunrise. It's Angkor Wat, and seeing sunrise there is the kind of thing that most people in attendance are going to do once in their lives. It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. People are going to want to take photographs.
Did the presence of other people there massively ruin the day for me? No. When sunrise is over, you have at least six hours to wander round the temples completely uninterrupted at your leisure.
If you so choose, you can come back in the afternoon when there are far fewer people around. Do I get an awesome amount of pleasure from looking back at my photos of Angkor and sharing them with friends and family? Yes. Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No.
It's really impossible to hold the details of an experience like wandering round Angkor in your head for years to come. I'm not going to remember the detail on a specific bas-relief, or the view I got from the top of a specific temple in years to come. Having photographs of these things really helps in that regard and enables me to 'revisit' any time I want.
This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?
Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.
> It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list.
Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don't have medical condition, I've spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I've spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby's first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives.
I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I've stored them in an edited/modified form that would please me. I am not even sure if 'me according to me' is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I've woven into somewhat consistent story about myself.
People used to view material goods as good life now it all about 'experiences' . I just don't understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.
> Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.
When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly. That sort of distortion of an environment can be difficult to ignore. It sounds like the author had a similar experience, and if that happens to you, you might find that the thing that grabs your attention most is how everyone's constant photography can degrade an experience.
I missed the sunrise when I was in Cambodia, so I went to Angkor Wat during sunset instead. It was amazing.
The place was almost empty. I walked around for over an hour while the remaining tourists left and then sat at the entrance and shared a beer with my driver. It was such a great experience. I don't think I took any photos either..
Yeah, it really seems like the author is making an argument against cameras in general. Tourists have been taking pictures for a long time. Instagram didn't invent trying to impress people with photos of your travels.
> This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?
I think Medium is ruining my enjoyment of the internet
Also the Angkor Wat temple area is approximately 30 miles by 30 miles. You only get that sort of crowd where the tour busses go for the official sunrise viewing spot. I had my own motor scooter for transport and it was easy to find ruins where you were on your own - no tourists, locals or attendants.
> This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?
Yes: this. It all seems so reasonable until you step away a little and have a think about it. Tourists have been behaving this way since tourism, and especially since photography, became a thing. It is not Instagram's fault.
I am moderately annoyed with myself for falling into the trap of clicking on the link to, and then actually reading, this article.
I think you missed the author's point. The point to me was mainly the lies that photos tell. OP posted on IG representing that he was (presumably) calmly relaxing with some coffee while watching the sunrise, when in fact he was part of a herd trying to snap a photo like this.
The secondary point is that constructing that lie ends up removing people from the moment. I think this is the weaker point as people have been taking pictures for a long time... but it is true that the population that does this has increased manyfold, since everyone with a smart phone can participate.
>Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No.
What's the point then? I used to take such pictures, and even though I'm an OK shot, my pictures of famous places or even interesting "random" landscapes aren't gonna be nearly as good as ones I can find online. If I'm in it, then at least there's some unique story being told. Otherwise I'm just making a crap documentary.
Photography is an incredible way to experience a new location.
It isn't ruining vacations, its redefining them.
In Laos, I met a young munk named Khao at the top of Phou si in Luang Prabang. He kindly posed for a photo, and then we had a conversation. He gave me his email, and I sent him the photo later on.
The "perfect photo" isn't the goal. Memories and being able to share our awesome travel experiences with friends and family is.
I find these types of criticisms of photography just part of the hipster "backpacker mentality": I'm better than the mainstream. I don't visit the same tourist destinations like everyone else. I eat the local food and not at touristic restaurants. I see a sunset and I don't upload it to Instagram.
Several years back I decided to stop taking photos. I felt I spent too much time looking at the world through my camera screen or viewfinder instead of with my own eyes, and worrying about the right settings instead of simply enjoying myself and letting go. (I'm not an experienced photographer, which probably also makes me slower.)
Turns out it wasn't the best solution either. Memory decays, and a few years later it became difficult to reminisce anything about the places I went to.
The sweet spot for me is to just snap a few pictures, quickly, without worrying about how good it looks. I don't post anything on social media anyway, so I couldn't care less how cool my photo looks. But years later, these photos are invaluable as catalysts to trigger my brain into reminiscing much much more about these moments than if I didn't have any photos.
I once had a pretty strong stance against photography. I come from a culture where everyone takes photos of everything to the point that events seem to circle around it. It was just boring, and I agreed with a philosopher (sorry can't remember which) that when you take a photo, you miss the authentic moment because you're busy manufacturing one.
Now I wish I wasn't that idealistic/arrogant because now I don't have much photos to look at! When I look at my childhood photos, it makes me realise the extent we can sometimes whitewash our own memories of the past.
This is one of those topics that will keep coming up. I first properly noticed this a few years ago whilst strolling around Tate Modern and watching a girl go from exhibit to exhibit just taking a picture without seeming to take in what she was picturing (I might be wrong, how we judge/look at art is different).
Art is maybe different to historical places. Having just come back from Japan, I noticed this whilst walking around shrines and temples, where it felt like conveyor belt tourism. Walk along a path till you hit the "perfect" point for your selfie/shot of said temple, then keep going till you hit the exit. I even came across this sign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredce/26366290652/in/album-7... a sign of the times?
I struggled in Japan, my knowledge of the language was completely lacking, and it made me wonder, how do we cater to those who don't speak English in the UK, is it a struggle for those too? Is the selfie destroying culture, or have we not done enough to allow people to understand the thing they're looking at?
I don't think it will keep coming up for long. Cameras are getting cheaper and better fast enough that those interested in recording parts of their vacation will soon find it easier to just record continuously to ensure that whatever they are seeing can be shared. It's a limited-time version of the argument for life-logging. When your headset or glasses take a photo of everything in front you all the time, all that's necessary is that you have seen something. The objections related to manual management of cameras and how people aren't really experiencing the moment will be moot.
Of course, we'll replace them with objections to being recorded in public, as we saw with Google Glass, but eventually those will fade, too, as it becomes impossible to know if other people are currently preserving any give moment.
To be fair museums themselves make this worse. I still haven't come across a museum (granted I don't go a lot) that had exhaustive good-quality photographs of all their exhibits available online.
So to give this girl the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this is the only time she'll be in London, she only has a few days, and she's genuinely interested in the art, but taking photos of it to inspect it later allows her to enjoy more of it than hanging around carefully looking at individual pieces at the expense of not seeing any of the others at all, ever.
This hits pretty close to home for me. I'm lucky enough to work remotely, and for the past ~year I've been living abroad. I'm also a huge Instagram user. I have somewhere around 700 photos, most of which are travel-related and have 5-10 hashtags each.
I've felt the same thing as the author, dozens of times. I've gone out of my way multiple times to simply take a cool Instagram photo and wait for the likes to come in.
I've been subconsciously looking for an alternative for awhile now. Sketching [1] may be an option, but my drawing skills are a bit rusty. Maybe I'll just take photos but upload them to my own site, rather than seek the kudos from random Instagrammers.
Why upload them anywhere? Take the photos and store them on your computer/phone/backup drive. I mean if the goal is to have some nice photos you can look back on but remove the element of crazing likes etc. why even bother uploading them to your own website?
I went through something really similar. I had joined Instagram as a way of meeting other photographers in the Bay Area, and had a great time shooting with lots of cool people, learning new tricks, and getting feedback. But the turning point for me was when I realized that the reaction (or lack thereof) to my photos could make me unhappy with a photo I had previously really liked. I decided I'd rather take photos to please myself than to please other people.
Now, I shoot, and maintain a photo blog, but it's more or less disconnected from social media. I'm happy to receive critiques on my work, but now when I post a photo it's for me to look at later, rather than to get likes, and it's made me a lot happier.
I was really envious of artists when visiting the major european cities: they really saw the buildings/sculptures. Everyone one just takes a picture and moves along, to finish the Louvre in a single day.
I would have thought the main issue is the sheer number of people who can now afford to go to these exotic locations, rather than the pictures themselves. On the upside I'm able to enjoy places like Devon much more now that the people who packed out the beaches 30 years ago are all off taking pictures at Angkor Wat
I've been a hobby photographer for over 40 years. I've also sold my work.
This past weekend I watched the latest James Bond movie. When I was a kid, I used to love those. Not only was Bond invincible and always cool, but he also traveled to the most exotic places.
Watching the movie yesterday? Meh. Not so much. It occurred to me that with all of the photo sharing going on social media, it takes a lot more than a movie star in a panoramic shot to impress me. In fact, lately when I watch movies, I'm guessing the locations they were shot -- simply because I've seen so many other images of the same place.
I feel that images as a way to say something about yourself, like "Hey, I was here!" probably don't work like they used to. I have some friends that will dump 80 pictures of their day at the beach. Wow. Nobody has a day at the beach that is that memorable.
Images as a way to show your feeling at the time? I don't think they're ever going out of style. I'll take 100-200 shots, then find 1 or 2. Then I'll spend some time in post production making the image match the feeling I had looking at the scene. This may or may not be realistic. I find that I rarely can achieve this effect by pushing pre-canned image processing buttons.
It reminds me of my first trip to the Grand Canyon. My wife and I got out of the car and looked. Wow! Big! Really big! So I took some pictures.
Just then a bus pulls up. Scores of other people get out, all with cameras. Big! It's really big! Many more pictures were taken.
I realized that this was total bullshit. If we go home now, we'll just have yet another picture like 7 million other pictures. It means nothing. So we went hiking down below the rim. (We hiked an hour or two down. It was twice that time coming back up.) It was during this hike that I actually had a personal experience of the Grand Canyon. We met the new superintendent, we chatted with other travelers, we noticed how that once you started interacting with the canyon, it left a completely different experience than just looking at a 2D image.
Technology is giving us a lot of little ways to pretend we're "starring in our own reality show", but most of that is just pretend.
>> If we go home now, we'll just have yet another picture like 7 million other pictures. It means nothing.
If I go somewhere like the Grand Canyon, I don't take a single picture. If I want to see pictures of the Grand Canyon I'll go on the internet and find some professionally shot one and remember that way. I'll let the pros take care of the pictures and I'll just enjoy seeing the real thing with my own eyes.
I wish I had just a couple of photographs of my misspent youth (15 to 20 / 1994 to 1999). I spent a lot of time socialising/drinking/partying with a big social group of friends. Pre-digital era, nobody ever took a picture. With hindsight I should have taken just a few to reminisce with in my old age.
People have been taking photos of their vacations, printing them and then making other people view them, for decades now. Nothing has changed except the amount of photos and instantaneous method of posting. Don't worry, technology is not ruining anything in this case.
It's ruining it for me if I have to dodge selfie sticks and migrate my way through a hoard of tourists too busy paying attention to the photos they have just taken on their phones.
I've been following some friends' travels through southeast Asia over the last six months via Instagram, and it's been great. Seems like they're having a great time, and I like being able to talk to them about what they're seeing, doing, and eating. Bummer this other person felt her vacation was ruined by what she chose to do.
> That scene — the fight for the perfect Instagram
Ok so either one of two things has happened here:
a) the author believes every person who takes a photo on a smartphone is using Instagram.
b) the author is part of a group of people who have replaced the word "photo(graph)" with "Instagram" in their vocabulary, similar to how "kleenex" is often used in America instead of "tissue".
I honestly don't know which is more likely, but they're both fucking ridiculous.
I've noticed an increase of what I call people documenting their experience at events, and circulating that documentation.
This predates Instagram - I was at a Dylan concert at Bluesfest in Ottawa circa 2007, and a noticed lot of folks spent significant effort getting audio/video clips (and presumably sharing them using their method of choice based on time spent banging away on their phones after capturing the clip). There were even noticeable numbers of folks calling people and holding their phones up for the other end to hear.
It's a little weird - it has an element of having to prove to people that you're at a some big event and experiencing something that other people aren't.
My own preference is to Be There Now (apologies to Ram Dass) and soak in the experience. Of course spending time noting other people not being in the moment in turn diminishes my own focus.
I am saddened by what I perceive as a lessening of being in an experience with the people around you, and a need to prove to people that you're a part of something exciting, perhaps even some 'I'm Here and You're Not'.
Instagram is just the way of sharing experiences, no less important than, you know, talking about things.
reply
Except Instagram users (and every other social network) is not about "sharing". They're about broadcasting. If it was about sharing then there would regularly be multi-way conversations between users. Instagram is about posting a picture and receiving likes and comments in response, but that's where the conversation ends. That isn't "social" by any definition I understand.
Instagram and Facebook travel photos are the contemporary equivalent of postcards to friends and family back home. I agree it's important not to make capturing a good photo the most important part of your vacation, but while a few people are going to fall into that trap, for most of us the photos serve as a way to remind us of the experience and share it with our loved ones. The fact that photos are so easy to take these days is a problem, sure, but give it another couple of decades, and our life-capture gear embedded in our clothing will record 360-degree video and audio of our entire lives and we'll have mini-drones that will capture our selfies for us, or maybe we'll just be able to stand in any spot in the world and smile and think "selfie" and the surveillance-industrial complex will take the 3D image of us in our surroundings it constantly keeps built from universal surveillance and mark that moment specifically to share with our list of approved cohorts.
>... and our life-capture gear embedded in our clothing will record 360-degree video and audio of our entire lives...
I disagree. This could be happening now. The reason it is not is because the vast majority of our day is boring. And then there's the disgusting biological acts we have to do to stay alive. Nobody wants to record all that.
I don't take more than a few pictures on vacation anymore. Ive learned I can enjoy the experience more if I'm not worried about trying to take pics of everything. Better yet, my memories of the experience are better than the pictures I used to take. Giving up "must capture this moment" mentality allows me to be present in the moment. It is very liberating.
I'm actually finding the opposite. I used to take no pictures at all, and now we take a nice big camera when we go on vacation. I'm amazed at how little I remembered about the details, and the photos bring that flooding back.
Of course, this assumes there were memorable things happening in the first place. If you just saw the sites and that was it, then the pictures aren't actually any better than any else's pictures... And to be fair, other pictures are usually just about as good for most memories.
A picture of the Kaminarimon gate in Tokyo isn't actually that different between pictures, after all. A picture of a certain event (parade?) with it in the background would be different. And pictures of an event like a wedding would be very unique.
It's not just holidays that this is a problem, even just communal domestic activities like concerts are full of people watching the action from behind the glare of their phone screen
I mean, smartphone cameras basically ruined everything; I remember grousing over people pulling out their phones at concerts - and at any other momentous event, basically.
My problem with the trend is that there's a growing trend for people to experience things through a medium - or filter - rather than directly, and they miss out on a lot by doing so. With photographs (and Instagram), you can have your cake and eat it too, of course, but I'm bummed about the camera phone as a permament intermediary between us and the real world.
[+] [-] kristianc|10 years ago|reply
Sure - there were lots of people crowded around a similar spot at sunrise. It's Angkor Wat, and seeing sunrise there is the kind of thing that most people in attendance are going to do once in their lives. It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. People are going to want to take photographs.
Did the presence of other people there massively ruin the day for me? No. When sunrise is over, you have at least six hours to wander round the temples completely uninterrupted at your leisure.
If you so choose, you can come back in the afternoon when there are far fewer people around. Do I get an awesome amount of pleasure from looking back at my photos of Angkor and sharing them with friends and family? Yes. Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No.
It's really impossible to hold the details of an experience like wandering round Angkor in your head for years to come. I'm not going to remember the detail on a specific bas-relief, or the view I got from the top of a specific temple in years to come. Having photographs of these things really helps in that regard and enables me to 'revisit' any time I want.
This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?
Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.
[+] [-] dominotw|10 years ago|reply
Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don't have medical condition, I've spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I've spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby's first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives.
I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I've stored them in an edited/modified form that would please me. I am not even sure if 'me according to me' is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I've woven into somewhat consistent story about myself.
People used to view material goods as good life now it all about 'experiences' . I just don't understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.
[+] [-] staccatomeasure|10 years ago|reply
When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly. That sort of distortion of an environment can be difficult to ignore. It sounds like the author had a similar experience, and if that happens to you, you might find that the thing that grabs your attention most is how everyone's constant photography can degrade an experience.
[+] [-] ozmbie|10 years ago|reply
The place was almost empty. I walked around for over an hour while the remaining tourists left and then sat at the entrance and shared a beer with my driver. It was such a great experience. I don't think I took any photos either..
[+] [-] derrickdirge|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gotofritz|10 years ago|reply
I think Medium is ruining my enjoyment of the internet
[+] [-] tim333|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bartread|10 years ago|reply
Yes: this. It all seems so reasonable until you step away a little and have a think about it. Tourists have been behaving this way since tourism, and especially since photography, became a thing. It is not Instagram's fault.
I am moderately annoyed with myself for falling into the trap of clicking on the link to, and then actually reading, this article.
[+] [-] Domenic_S|10 years ago|reply
The secondary point is that constructing that lie ends up removing people from the moment. I think this is the weaker point as people have been taking pictures for a long time... but it is true that the population that does this has increased manyfold, since everyone with a smart phone can participate.
[+] [-] MichaelGG|10 years ago|reply
What's the point then? I used to take such pictures, and even though I'm an OK shot, my pictures of famous places or even interesting "random" landscapes aren't gonna be nearly as good as ones I can find online. If I'm in it, then at least there's some unique story being told. Otherwise I'm just making a crap documentary.
[+] [-] dkopi|10 years ago|reply
In Laos, I met a young munk named Khao at the top of Phou si in Luang Prabang. He kindly posed for a photo, and then we had a conversation. He gave me his email, and I sent him the photo later on.
The "perfect photo" isn't the goal. Memories and being able to share our awesome travel experiences with friends and family is.
I find these types of criticisms of photography just part of the hipster "backpacker mentality": I'm better than the mainstream. I don't visit the same tourist destinations like everyone else. I eat the local food and not at touristic restaurants. I see a sunset and I don't upload it to Instagram.
[+] [-] peferron|10 years ago|reply
Turns out it wasn't the best solution either. Memory decays, and a few years later it became difficult to reminisce anything about the places I went to.
The sweet spot for me is to just snap a few pictures, quickly, without worrying about how good it looks. I don't post anything on social media anyway, so I couldn't care less how cool my photo looks. But years later, these photos are invaluable as catalysts to trigger my brain into reminiscing much much more about these moments than if I didn't have any photos.
[+] [-] junko|10 years ago|reply
Now I wish I wasn't that idealistic/arrogant because now I don't have much photos to look at! When I look at my childhood photos, it makes me realise the extent we can sometimes whitewash our own memories of the past.
[+] [-] JazCE|10 years ago|reply
Art is maybe different to historical places. Having just come back from Japan, I noticed this whilst walking around shrines and temples, where it felt like conveyor belt tourism. Walk along a path till you hit the "perfect" point for your selfie/shot of said temple, then keep going till you hit the exit. I even came across this sign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredce/26366290652/in/album-7... a sign of the times?
I struggled in Japan, my knowledge of the language was completely lacking, and it made me wonder, how do we cater to those who don't speak English in the UK, is it a struggle for those too? Is the selfie destroying culture, or have we not done enough to allow people to understand the thing they're looking at?
[+] [-] randallsquared|10 years ago|reply
Of course, we'll replace them with objections to being recorded in public, as we saw with Google Glass, but eventually those will fade, too, as it becomes impossible to know if other people are currently preserving any give moment.
[+] [-] avar|10 years ago|reply
So to give this girl the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this is the only time she'll be in London, she only has a few days, and she's genuinely interested in the art, but taking photos of it to inspect it later allows her to enjoy more of it than hanging around carefully looking at individual pieces at the expense of not seeing any of the others at all, ever.
[+] [-] keiferski|10 years ago|reply
I've felt the same thing as the author, dozens of times. I've gone out of my way multiple times to simply take a cool Instagram photo and wait for the likes to come in.
I've been subconsciously looking for an alternative for awhile now. Sketching [1] may be an option, but my drawing skills are a bit rusty. Maybe I'll just take photos but upload them to my own site, rather than seek the kudos from random Instagrammers.
[1] http://www.urbansketchers.org/
[+] [-] k-mcgrady|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kough|10 years ago|reply
Now, I shoot, and maintain a photo blog, but it's more or less disconnected from social media. I'm happy to receive critiques on my work, but now when I post a photo it's for me to look at later, rather than to get likes, and it's made me a lot happier.
[+] [-] swah|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] takno|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanielBMarkham|10 years ago|reply
This past weekend I watched the latest James Bond movie. When I was a kid, I used to love those. Not only was Bond invincible and always cool, but he also traveled to the most exotic places.
Watching the movie yesterday? Meh. Not so much. It occurred to me that with all of the photo sharing going on social media, it takes a lot more than a movie star in a panoramic shot to impress me. In fact, lately when I watch movies, I'm guessing the locations they were shot -- simply because I've seen so many other images of the same place.
I feel that images as a way to say something about yourself, like "Hey, I was here!" probably don't work like they used to. I have some friends that will dump 80 pictures of their day at the beach. Wow. Nobody has a day at the beach that is that memorable.
Images as a way to show your feeling at the time? I don't think they're ever going out of style. I'll take 100-200 shots, then find 1 or 2. Then I'll spend some time in post production making the image match the feeling I had looking at the scene. This may or may not be realistic. I find that I rarely can achieve this effect by pushing pre-canned image processing buttons.
It reminds me of my first trip to the Grand Canyon. My wife and I got out of the car and looked. Wow! Big! Really big! So I took some pictures.
Just then a bus pulls up. Scores of other people get out, all with cameras. Big! It's really big! Many more pictures were taken.
I realized that this was total bullshit. If we go home now, we'll just have yet another picture like 7 million other pictures. It means nothing. So we went hiking down below the rim. (We hiked an hour or two down. It was twice that time coming back up.) It was during this hike that I actually had a personal experience of the Grand Canyon. We met the new superintendent, we chatted with other travelers, we noticed how that once you started interacting with the canyon, it left a completely different experience than just looking at a 2D image.
Technology is giving us a lot of little ways to pretend we're "starring in our own reality show", but most of that is just pretend.
[+] [-] bluedino|10 years ago|reply
If I go somewhere like the Grand Canyon, I don't take a single picture. If I want to see pictures of the Grand Canyon I'll go on the internet and find some professionally shot one and remember that way. I'll let the pros take care of the pictures and I'll just enjoy seeing the real thing with my own eyes.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] stephenr|10 years ago|reply
Ok so either one of two things has happened here:
a) the author believes every person who takes a photo on a smartphone is using Instagram.
b) the author is part of a group of people who have replaced the word "photo(graph)" with "Instagram" in their vocabulary, similar to how "kleenex" is often used in America instead of "tissue".
I honestly don't know which is more likely, but they're both fucking ridiculous.
[+] [-] vic-traill|10 years ago|reply
This predates Instagram - I was at a Dylan concert at Bluesfest in Ottawa circa 2007, and a noticed lot of folks spent significant effort getting audio/video clips (and presumably sharing them using their method of choice based on time spent banging away on their phones after capturing the clip). There were even noticeable numbers of folks calling people and holding their phones up for the other end to hear.
It's a little weird - it has an element of having to prove to people that you're at a some big event and experiencing something that other people aren't.
My own preference is to Be There Now (apologies to Ram Dass) and soak in the experience. Of course spending time noting other people not being in the moment in turn diminishes my own focus.
I am saddened by what I perceive as a lessening of being in an experience with the people around you, and a need to prove to people that you're a part of something exciting, perhaps even some 'I'm Here and You're Not'.
Maybe I should just shutup and watch the show.
[+] [-] atemerev|10 years ago|reply
We humans are social animals. Instagram is just the way of sharing experiences, no less important than, you know, talking about things.
[+] [-] onion2k|10 years ago|reply
Except Instagram users (and every other social network) is not about "sharing". They're about broadcasting. If it was about sharing then there would regularly be multi-way conversations between users. Instagram is about posting a picture and receiving likes and comments in response, but that's where the conversation ends. That isn't "social" by any definition I understand.
[+] [-] skywhopper|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|10 years ago|reply
I disagree. This could be happening now. The reason it is not is because the vast majority of our day is boring. And then there's the disgusting biological acts we have to do to stay alive. Nobody wants to record all that.
[+] [-] klean92|10 years ago|reply
Millenials do it with instagram pictures instead?
[+] [-] JazCE|10 years ago|reply
Just to be like nigga you ain't up on this!
- http://genius.com/225037
I think it's more a case of Millenials (not even really them) being able to afford to go to Angkor Wat or any other exotic destination.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nommm-nommm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wccrawford|10 years ago|reply
Of course, this assumes there were memorable things happening in the first place. If you just saw the sites and that was it, then the pictures aren't actually any better than any else's pictures... And to be fair, other pictures are usually just about as good for most memories.
A picture of the Kaminarimon gate in Tokyo isn't actually that different between pictures, after all. A picture of a certain event (parade?) with it in the background would be different. And pictures of an event like a wedding would be very unique.
[+] [-] ams6110|10 years ago|reply
I realized I never looked at them, so why bother?
[+] [-] djhworld|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kmfrk|10 years ago|reply
My problem with the trend is that there's a growing trend for people to experience things through a medium - or filter - rather than directly, and they miss out on a lot by doing so. With photographs (and Instagram), you can have your cake and eat it too, of course, but I'm bummed about the camera phone as a permament intermediary between us and the real world.
I'm not going to blame Instagram for it, though.