If you live/work in tourist spots, you can’t walk 10 feet without getting interrupted by a tourist taking their stupid, duck face picture. It is near impossible to enjoy anything in peace these days. I blame it all on social media. I can’t wait for all social media to die, but that’s not gonna happen, Is it?
I (and I’d argue most New Yorkers) cannot see how that would be in any way a good experience.
Cops, huge crowds, bone biting cold, long waiting times… not worth it. But worst of all is still camera flashes, in my opinion
Something's gotta give. I don't think we can take it much further. I hope it's a passing fad. Once everybody shares everything it's not special anymore so how do you stand out? Having no online presence might become a new flex.
On the other hand A lot of friends are starting to opt for dumb phones, others (gen z) are now picking up digital point and shoot cameras.
What if clubhouse ‘took off’ and everyone’d be making podcasts instead of vlogs. “Quiet please”!
I guess it would be like the joke that since using a phone while driving is prohibited, people turned to reading books behind the wheel en masse
> Making TikTok by playing loud music creates a nuisance for pilgrims from all over the world who come to the birthplace of Gautama Buddha
> Over recent months, there have been reports of TikTok creators storming farms and trampling crops, and even causing traffic jams while shooting. Chamomile farmers in Morang in eastern Nepal were forced to harvest their crop early, as some TikTokers trampled on their crop. In Kathmandu, a popular street that was decorated with colorful umbrellas to attract tourists after the Covid-19 slump went viral on TikTok, and authorities were forced to shut it down as creators flocked to the area, leading to traffic congestion.
On a normal day in NYC tourist areas, it is common for tourists (especially younger women) to take pictures every few feet. Initially you’d be polite and not walk into their frame, but this gets old super quick. You’re irritated, they’re irritated (because you didn’t pause for their dumb photo shoot)… ruins everyone’s day. All you wanted was to walk uninterrupted.
I used to live and work in upper east side. Took me a while to get used to it
Blocking one's path for once, even more so with telescope sticks and of course taking pictures with one in the background without consent. I live near one such touristic area where there's a rather narrow sidewalk. In the summer it is like running the gauntlet. I'm too often too nice by first letting people finish their posing and taking pictures, only that frequently even 5 selfies seem not enough because they didn't get that perfect angle right for the 'insta'.
> taking pictures with one in the background without consent
They don’t need your consent!
Can do vs Should do.
Yes, you can stand in the middle of a narrow path and use a selfie stick to take photos. No, you shouldn't do that if it inconveniences everybody around you. Doing so anyways makes you a self-centered dickhead.
Right up there with "I'm not touching you!"
And if you're offended by that, you are being egregiously unreasonable. Exactly the same is true of the picture-taking "concern".
I could try wait for a dozen people to finish taking photos (and it’s never just one photo, selfie or otherwise).
Or, after a couple weeks of this, I just stopped caring and would walk past them irrespective of interrupting someones shot. Now if they made an effort to leave an easily navigable gap behind the photographer so I could walk past without interrupting, sure, I did that. Most didn’t.
There’s still a lingering uncomfortability knowing I might be recorded forever in someone’s social media feed or whatever they do with the photos. Yes I know, it’s a public space and all.
Most foreigners are pretty taken aback when they encounter this, but I really like it. Not only do you not have to stare at everyone else's smartphone screen but it also removes any temptation to yourself to "preserve a memory"
Seems this is Japan specific, as I have not encountered this in Korea or Hong Kong.
We have fairly strict photography laws so people don't get their likeness shared without consent.
° jam bands still tend to allow these
And a lot of artists are also pretty tolerant at this point of it. For example, The guy who runs the excellent (unofficial) live archive for NIN, got an invite to meet the band rather than a cease & desist.
(Edited for wording).
For me, I look back on pictures and tapes of my childhood with joy. I'm glad my parents recorded those things and I can go back and see how things were when I was 3 or 8 or 12.
"Wait wait, do that again so I can get a picture of it! No no you were over here, don't face this way do what you were doing before just pretend I'm not here. What's wrong, you were having fun a minute ago stop pouting!"
Camera people can be really obnoxious like this, particularly to young children who haven't yet learned the value in humoring their parents. I always hated it when my mother got out the camera. If she had stood back and taken pictures without trying to arrange everything for the 'perfect' pictures it wouldn't have been such an issue. But that's not how it ever went.
Five year olds now have practiced photo poses and a ready-to-go fake smile, because every goddamn day is a photoshoot.
Not the person you are replying to, but I can explain to you how it was "taking me out of the flow", because I have the exact same feeling about my mother and taking pictures.
If it was just her taking pictures while I was doing something like playing in the yard, that wouldn't be an issue. However, it was never just this. It was always "ok ok, hold up, one sec, can you stand over there to the right and look in this direction and smile?" whenever we went somewhere that was supposed to be a fun experience that wasn't a part of the daily routine. As a kid, you can imagine, stopping doing whatever fun thing I was doing just to awkwardly pose for a photo I don't care about in the slightest for a few mins, it was an aggravating and not a fun experience.
I actually would not have minded at all if she took pictures of me while i was doing something without interrupting and stopping everything. To this day, I find photos of me (and just in general) taken "naturally" (without stopping things and everyone posing intentionally) to be the best all around. They just look real and looking back at them makes the memories of that moment flow back into my head much stronger.
100% my impression too. Photos where no one is trying to "pose" are the best (with few exceptions). But my significant other disagrees. She feels there's no point in such photos. We've agreed to leave it at that.
In addition, I gather a sense of happiness curating photos a few months after the photos were taken. I tend to remember the details of such events in a lot more detail and for much longer. I remember much less looking at a picture of us posing for a scenic background as compared to a picture of just her, in the moment, doing something.
I now enjoy capturing 20 second videos of me and family doing whatever, with no one trying to pose, they just look at me with the phone and smile or wave. The background conversations captured in them string together a lot of precious moments and memories.
However, I dislike two things 1.) Doing it for every small activity 2.) Broadcasting it on social media
For 1.), I find that I don't really benefit from every walk around town or whatever in my albums. It's more enjoyable to remember significant moments - and there are quite enough I think.
For 2.) I find that to find a good representation of what is happening, I need to alter my behavior. Instead of taking two to five pictures, I need to take videos and hundreds of pictures etc. As others have mentioned, this kills the actual thing. Instead of "I visited place X and did Y", it becomes "I took photos and videos at place X pretending to do Y".
So the sweet spot is in between. I am very happy to have taken some photos - even selfies - in the past, and I wish I would have taken slightly more photos (or better ones, or videos) in the past, before we had such nice phone cameras.
Pictures are great to remember moments. For that, we need enough pictures of these moments - but we also need to have made memories. We need to have experienced the actual thing.
Pictures that go on social media are marketing. They have a different purpose.
For example, they loved a short video of an elephant shower in a ZOO.
Unfortunately, this requires the same hardware as a broadcast, so it would be covered by the same no-pictures policy.
It makes me wish I had more photos from the 80s and 90s too, in the pre-digital years.
Given how supposedly unhappy people are, I think society really needs a spiritual awakening.
the interactivity is leaps and bounds higher and more fulfilling
I don’t record more than a couple 15 second videos, at an event, choosing to consciously “be present”, but from those broadcasts I get friends trying to find me there, I get introductions to their friends, I get dates from people that want to share in the energy at a future event, I get hookups - I sold an extra ticket at a festival by posting w/ the right hashtag and the girl was attractive and liked me and I hung out with her squad all day and into the morning
There was nothing unhappy about it
in a big crowd everyone is doing this at different intervals
even another commenter’s interpretation about “broadcasting that you’re having fun means youre not having fun” is way off the mark, its a beacon for other people to come be part of the fun. at least there is some self-awareness here about old man yelling at clouds.
people here are extrapolating reasons that are wildly incorrect, instead of just nonjudgementally asking people to get a wide variety of modern answers.
We ended up leaving pretty early because it became pointless once people literally started standing on our stuff. I swear, venues oversell things to the point where it is too crowded to actually enjoy it.
We have the technology now and I can't really fault people for using it.
Selfies I could go without, especially when the subject of the photo is something else and the only reason for putting yourself into the shot is proving it really happened.
A band I like play very differently when live to when recording, almost like a different vibe. It's great that some people have recorded it as otherwise there wouldn't be any way to remember it.
Maybe there could be a "concert" mode on your phone that turns down brightness to a low percentage and cuts the view down to a quarter of your screen.
The video captured that couple in front of you who were ridiculous, and that nudged you to remember talking about them afterwards with your friends. You wouldn't have remembered it otherwise because memory is not very durable or accurate at the best of times.
I don’t feel like I need to “prove” I attended an event but years later it makes the recollection more visceral — at least for me.
Years ago I went back to the same festival, and what I notice what changed immensely was that everyone was taking pictures and selfies with smartphones. It was so weird to see. Plus, what used to be a Rock festival was now a Pop festival (everyone needed to be there).
Somehow nowadays, you don't only enjoy yourself, but you have to broadcast it that you're enjoying yourself. For me, that takes away a big part of the enjoyment.
I'll stop my old man's rant now ;).