We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11519182 and marked it off-topic.

> Susan Sontag. It's a pessimistic sentiment that is borne out of insecurity and self-centeredness ("I know what's best for everyone else"), and has nothing to do with the world outside the ego.

That's a pretty terrible summary of Sontag's thesis. Maybe that's what you genuinely took away from her essay, but I can assure you there's a lot more of value in On Photography than that.

It's also a rather dismissive way of taking about perhaps the most famous photographers and filmmaker of the early postmodern era, whose partner also was (and still is) an equally famous photographer.

You don't have to like Sontag, or even agree with her, but you can give her a bit more credit than dismissing everything she wrote as having "nothing to do with the world outside of her ego".

It's not a summary of her thesis, but where it's coming from. Someone else posted this and it does a better job than I do: https://xkcd.com/1314/

Taking a picture of a sunset is very nice, the distraction of 100 lit up screens filming a full gig video from 100 feet back that will never be watched is something else.

Then don't stand there. The world is a big place, if you find yourself surrounded by 100 lit up screens and you would rather not, take a few steps to the side.

Stepping to the side isn't practical when you've paid money for a seat to see a band, and can't actually see for the sea of cameras and phones.

I remember it was male, Japanese and non-photographer. But hey, it's not a too strange concept :)