I took pictures of my friends at McDonalds. I posed for pictures at the mall. I snapped some photos at my friend’s house. Every place I visited represented a new place to photograph. It was sort of like a disease, a picture-taking disease.
After a few months, it started to become less fun for both me and my friends. Taking pictures had once meant a chance to save a happy moment, but it had now turned into a routine that simply gave me a chance to post them on my Facebook page. Taking pictures even took the fun out of a concert I went to because I was too busy using my camera rather than actually enjoying the concert through my own eyes.
When I was younger, pictures used to mean much more. My sister and I would wait excitedly for a roll of film to develop at Walgreens. Pictures were not instantaneous. They were not retaken 20 times until it came out right. Pictures were more spontaneous because we did not know what they were going to look like.
I always enjoyed flipping through the pictures after developing them and laughing because my dad had positioned the camera so our heads were cut off in some pictures. It was fun to have these moments. Even though the pictures had been posed for, there was more of a sense of surprise when looking at them.
Pictures were taken for family rather than for the public eye. My Facebook wall feed tells me that the meaning of pictures has changed. Constant updates indicating that so and so has uploaded pictures and added them to the Fun folder in her album section just goes to show that social networking sites and digital cameras have made us all mini-celebrities. We take pictures and upload them on Facebook to get a tiny bit of recognition and so everyone can know that we are having a GREAT time. If you are having a great time, why do you need everyone else to know?
I love my digital camera, but I think I am going to stop living through the lens and start looking at life through my own four eyes.
Now, here’s the challenge for you.
All you camera whores out there, take pictures for a week or two and DO NOT upload them on Facebook or any other social networking site. Are they still fun and exciting? Test yourself and you may be surprised at what you find.
