I think this is the crux of the issue. You are right--photography has been part of vacations since cameras were generally available. But what's different is the real-time nature of sharing those images, and the real time acceptance (or rejection) of those images via likes and comments. If those are more important than the lived experience, then, I think we have a problem.

I'm a friendly critic of Instagram (it is the only social media outlet my wife and I use). It is perfect for sharing images while we travel. It is also easy, however, to get up checking if folks have liked our photos, or commented on them. That's not Instagram's fault, of course, but I wouldn't even worry about such things if we weren't sharing photos almost immediately.

I worked on a mega yacht and the thing that most separated me from everyone else as I interacted with the owners and guests is the context of our stories that we tell. I might tell a story set in inner city high school I went to in lower Manhattan while their son tells a story that is set at Phillips Exeter Academy. The point is what separates me most is context. It is really important for a young person to separate herself from her peers by being in the context of being at Coachella. There is more than just memories. It is also about social standing.

This may not seem relaxing to you, but I don't see how it's a problem. It's how they want to spend their vacation--and even if it is not relaxing, it's what they want to do. What's the problem?

A complaint seems to be "people are spending too much time photographing and not enough time experiencing the place." Photographing and sharing is precisely how many people experience the place, along with sharing those photographs and by seeing the photographs of others. Those people are sociable and like to share. That's not bad.

Personally I am not like that. If one wants a quiet vacation experience without big crowds, it is easy to get. For instance I often hear Yellowstone is crowded. While there I never understood this perception--it seemed expansive and quiet to me as we plied the roads and hiked down the trails. Then we saw Old Faithful. It was like going to the shopping mall. Same goes for this guy seeing this place in Cambodia. I'd bet anything that if he just strayed a couple thousand feet from whatever vista this was, he would have experienced "the real place," whatever he wanted that to be.

These sociable folks who want to share photos are like that every day. They're not going to change because they're on vacation, nor should they. Similarly the people who just want to experience wherever they are without sharing it with everyone are going to be like that everyday. They don't change while on vacation either. There's nothing wrong with the folks who want to share and pieces like this one are nothing but a bunch of snobbery. If the writer wants to spend his/her vacation being a snob, well, ok. The folks taking the photos and sharing them are probably enjoying their vacations. Hopefully he is enjoying his by being a snob.

Or it's become something of an addiction to them, and a lack of validation (either a lack of "likes" or an inability to post) results in withdrawal, which can cause depression and shares some behavioral symptoms with depression.

That's not how I would spend a vacation myself, but it's their vacation and their time. If they enjoy the attention, what's wrong with them enjoying it?

Why?

Edited to add:

I recently came across this quote from Norman Wirzba, a theologian at Duke University:

Media platforms and technological devices are not simply neutral tools that we use to move through life. Their power is much more extensive, because they shape and frame what we perceive and understand the wold to be. When people spend enough time in front of screens, it becomes all but inevitable that the whole world takes on the character of something to be watched. Given the technologies we now have for manipulating screens in whatever fashion we like to suit our own particular tastes, if we find the Mona Lisa boring, no problem. We can run the image through the Fatify app or add the graphics and colors we like to make it amusing or better than the original! Should we be surprised that people often find the world uninteresting and dull?

When I post a picture on FB or text it, I'm not "looking for social approval." I'm reaching out to friends who aren't there with me and saying "hey man, check this out!"

Often the pictures remind me not of what is in the picture, but help me remember what I was doing, where I was, and the things around it.

I don't go somewhere so I can take pictures to show my friends, I go there because I want to see/experience it for myself. Plus friends don't care to see more than a few pictures, anyway.

How is the ability to play with the Mona Lisa not part of the world? Our lives online aren't imaginary, they're just as real a part of our world as the physical. If you enjoy tweaking the Mona Lisa, making it more personal, then that's you actively finding the world interesting and fun.

But anyway, some of this stuff predates social media and smartphones. And it was more of a novelty than anything. It might have even given me greater appreciation for the painting, since it is such a great painting for distorting human features.

I don't know if I can blame social media for this or not, but people vastly overstating their arguments because they are caught up in their own emotions does not make for illuminating discourse.

People have a very short attention span. If your vacation album has more than 50 photos, it doesn't matter how good the photos are, or how exciting the experience is.

the issue among others is, the most amazing places are sometimes off the grid, some photos require some proper processing (panoramas, night shots with milky way etc). which tends to take a lot of time and you need proper PC for it (lightroom, autopano, photoshop etc).

it would be a poor use of precious vacation time to spend evenings editing photos, wouldn't it...

on the other hand, however amazing it was (and it was, highly recommending before those idiots burn rest of rainforest and transform it into palm tree plantations) - I am not going to look in next months into photos once processed, however amazing they are (and some, especially diving and jungle ones are really :-O to me). we do various mountain stuff a lot and most weekends tend to bring additional set of pics. so it has to be process-quickly-and-move-on, otherwise it takes all my free time.

If you start adding hash tags to your photos, that's when you're chasing the validation game and it becomes everything I hate about social media / facebook.

In the end, it's their vacation, and if sitting around taking photos of everything is their way of relaxing, who is anyone else to judge? As usual these sorts of posts come down to entirely too much interest in what everybody else is doing, mind your own business.

I think this is a lifestyle choice and you have a problem if you have a problem with your behavior or don't like the result of it. If i see people doing it and they are happy why should it be a problem?

Memories and being able to share our awesome travel experiences with friends and family is.

Indeed. One of the primary criticism of this philosophy is that it's a giant lie. That people use this sort of "share how awesome it is" approach as a compensation for it not being awesome. As the stated quote says, the camera is the ultimate fantasy machine. The peaceful picture of Angkor Wat (or the Pyramids, or countless other big instagram game sites) is essentially a lie -- the image of peaceful historic tranquility is a fraud.

It has taken me a fair amount of travel; getting repeatedly lured in to tourist destinations based on the amazingly beautiful and serene photos of them to realize that it is all a lie and to try to plan my vacations around avoiding that lie. Two situations really stand out in my mind:

The first was at a tiger temple in Thailand, where the monks would run tourists through a photo assembly line of sorts. They would have all of the tigers out at specified times of the day in a controlled area, the tour bus arrives, everyone files out in a single file line, one monk takes your camera out of your hand while another leads you around to the various tigers that are setup in photogenic poses while the first snaps a photo with each of them, and then leads you out.

The second was at Antelope Canyon in Arizona. All of the tourists get loaded in to an off-road bus and driven to the entrance of the canyon. Because it is such a narrow and twisting path through the canyon, they are able to shove huge numbers of people through while allowing everyone to get the perfect shot. When I was there it was before Instagram, but the guides would go so far as tell everyone the proper f-stop and shutter speed to capture each photo correctly as they tossed dust up in to the rays of light piercing the canyon, or put sand up on a ledge to get the photos of it cascading off. Then they would hold each group back for a few minutes until the group ahead cleared out of the shot.

It was a cattle call in both experiences but the photos represent an experience completely unlike what actually happened. I have learned that when vacationing, you are much better off going to the "second rate" destination if you actually want to enjoy anything. Just a few miles from Antelope Canyon is another slot canyon called Water Holes Canyon that was only 70% as impressive as Antelope Canyon, but we were the only people there and could explore it however we wanted!

Once you know about the lie, it's easy enough to avoid, but sometimes the pull to get that shot is still strong. The picture of me with the tiger is pretty damn impressive!

You should actually read the article because the author isn't one of those people.

While it's a bit much to say that Instagram is ruining vacations, it's also a touch naive to say that the product is facilitating "memories and being able to share our awesome travel experiences with friends and family is". Social media is, for the most parts, a tool to elevate your perceived social status. So saying "It isn't ruining vacations, its redefining them" in the context of Instagram just reads like a Zuckerberg pull-quote.

It can be a bit toxic, however, and it's probably the major reason I drifted away from "mainstream" reddit. It seemed dominated by young men complaining about tumblr, which was dominated by young women complaining about reddit.

Of course, just reading that sentence, I see I've fallen into the trap.

See https://xkcd.com/774/ :-)

In all honestly, though, I wouldn't worry about it too much. People are just doing what they do to find their identity, and as long as you don't look down on them for not finding the best solution (because who has?) then keep looking for what works best for you. And recognize that it'll change over time. Embrace the changes, but don't dismiss those who haven't made the same changes as you.

That premise is what's hipster about these quotes.

Not all photography is lazy, and in fact it's a very fun way to experience a place. I just got back from visiting a country for the first time and I had an incredible time going around with my lightweight camera rig (not iPhone).

Taking a picture of your feet dangling off a cliff screams "hey look at me I'm so cool because I travel and I want your likes to feel better about myself". It's not about photography. The only intent here is to share and not enjoy what's around you.

Sure, maybe you won't experience the outcomes in your lifetime, but do you think your child or grandchild will also be able to go to that same place and have a similar experience? No, they won't, because the relentless drive of the internet will not stop trying to consolidate and creating uniformity.

WE are really starting to see its horrific effects on humanity in Europe, where a self-loathing population that wails for diversity is self-destructing by deconstructing the very thing that makes them unique and actually contributes to diversity and uniqueness. The problem is that everyone is so mired down in the myopic small scale, that they can't see the permanent and irreversible destruction and devastation and repercussions their actions cause on a bigger scale.

But so is humanity, furiously paving the path to hell in narrow minded, short sighted, selfish, bleeding heart on their sleeve soaked pavers.

Oh no! I guess I became a hipster! Please, I'll download Instagram, I'm not trying to be snooty, I'm just a guy. I appreciate things like sunsets, I didn't know I had to share them. Most places have sunsets. Maybe I can tweet that you should look at your own? No, to be safe, I'll post an Instagram every day. That way I won't be seen as condescending by random people on Hacker News.