The oversharing of vacation photos

I find your contention that people taking pictures or videos aren’t “experiencing the moment” to be very inaccurate and a little weird.

 

Yeah, it's fucking weird. But I think there is this stew of motivations going on and it's hard to figure out how much each one contributes. I'm 100 percent certain that the validation you speak of is a prominent part of it - it's a subcategory of insecurity.

 

Not "people."

Me.

I feel like I'm not experiencing the moment.

Your mileage may vary.

 

"Did you see that great Triple Crown finish?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so. Just a minute . . .(reaches for phone)."

 

Once the novelty of smart phones went away, I pretty much stopped taking non-professional photos. I just forget to do it. My wife and I went seven months without having a photo taken of us together. We don't think in those terms. I have more photos of athletes I cover at podiums than photos of us at this point. Back when you had to lug around a camera to take photos, I took more.

 

Definitely an image I think of when it comes to this topic.

Fortunately, I was too wasted to find my phone even if I wanted to when I saw the top of American Pharoah's head bop past me at Churchill Downs.

 

I had three toddler nieces and nephews jumping up and down and yelling "GO HORSEY GO!" blocking the screen when American Pharoah won.

 

My ex is a pathological user of social media. It drove me nuts when we were married, and it's way worse now. She uses it mostly to post, like, motivational sayings, or flattering pictures, or to show how great she's doing, and all her friends will say, "you go, girl!" or "you're so strong!" in the comments. It's a constant feedback loop of compliments. I get that she might need that right now, but I find it really weird. To my point above, it changes nothing about her actual life. I find it really sad, if I'm being honest.

 

A friend of mine texted me a photo of him inside goddamn U.S. Bank Stadium celebrating the Eagles Super Bowl win as the confetti was falling.

His enjoyment and/or experience of the moment was not at all diminished by the 10 seconds he spent taking a picture and sending it to me.

 

My wife's friend got divorced about 15 years ago and has been with her current husband 12 or 13 years. Two kids.

And still, on Facebook at least once a month or so, she will post about how her husband found her at just the right time, saved her at her lowest, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel - pick the cliche. (She's a really bad writer who thinks she's a really good writer. You know the type.)

Social media is an interesting space, that's for sure.

 

I believe you.

 

I don't go on it often, but it seems like Instagram does not have a block button, simply an unfollow. I have a friend who has been taking a selfie every damn day for like almost six months. She's newly divorced and constantly comments about how good things are just around the corner. At first I was happy to see it. Then, it became somewhat funny and sad. But we're way past that. Frankly, it's gotten nauseating. And there's another guy who posts like 3-5 landscape photos per day of pretty pictures from random sources. Not his own photos, but just ones he likes. If this were Facebook, I would just block them. Instagram doesn't permit that, unless I'm missing something. I don't want to hurt their feelings, but WTF, please just stop with the insanity.