I wonder if the urge to document being there has been around for a long time. When I toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky (world’s longest cave system), at one point we entered a large chamber and the guide pointed out all the marks on the ceiling. Apparently since the very beginning of this cave as a tourist attraction, people would hoist someone up with a candle. Holding the candle just below the ceiling left a sooty mark. Thus it could be used as a very slow writing implement. I saw dozens of sooty names and dates going back to the early 1800s. That sounds a lot like the selfie impulse.
Bryan Cranston as Hal in Malcolm: he’s had some good roles over the years, hasn’t he? From a recurring role as Tim Whatley the dentist in Seinfeld to Walter White in Breaking Bad.
I think we will all get bored of this narcissistic obsession with social media and things will change - which is not to say that they will change for the better. Maybe it's my age, but we seem so obsessed with how fast and simply we can do things now, we wan't immediate results. We have lost the joy in the process and put too much value in the result.
Thanks for a great read. Really enjoyed it. As a child of the analogue era, I definitely recognized myself in this. Since I quit FB 2 years ago, I do post very occasionally for work on Instagram, but even still, some of it is “look at me/us” cringeworthy.
I love how you write about social media brain! I too stopped posting much after I noticed I wasn’t enjoying my actual adventures, just getting high by myself at my computer because somebody I haven’t seen since 7th grade gave them a knee jerk like. I was also worried about what it would look like to my three young kids-- an addiction, and a sad one I hoped they wouldn’t emulate.
I feel like it really could go either way. When my kids were really little they would talk about how weird it was that grownups in real life were always looking down at their hands and never up like they did in books and movies. But then when my oldest hit fifth grade, they really wanted a phone, too!
I used to shoot off an entire roll of 24 photos for concert-going, then wait to find out if anything was worth keeping. Yep, the olden days. 😁
The funnier thing is, I haven't keep a single one of those negatives or the prints. The image of the experience was eventually disposable, I knew where I'd been. How much more disposable images are decades later, because of digital technology, and because of social media.
I still keep family albums. Yes, I make family look at them. 😂
I'm late to this discussion but I appreciated this essay very much. I have struggled to figure out my relationship with various platforms. I'm a writer and I want to connect with people. At the same time, I am occasionally flattened by a feeling of oppression. I've given myself permission to engage how and when I want to. I've seen the cliff side park where i walk every morning fill with people and trash since it became a destination in IG. I used to take pictures but now I don't.
Thanks for your comment Anna. It reminded me of another very detrimental aspect of Instagram. It gives us a false sense of being connected with our family and friends and knowing what is going on with their lives. In reality, we have no idea, and we are far better by actually talking to them. But the scrolling steals time to do that and also gives us this biased view.
I enjoyed this and I agree with you. We really do not need to post everything for people we mostly don't know.
I wonder if the urge to document being there has been around for a long time. When I toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky (world’s longest cave system), at one point we entered a large chamber and the guide pointed out all the marks on the ceiling. Apparently since the very beginning of this cave as a tourist attraction, people would hoist someone up with a candle. Holding the candle just below the ceiling left a sooty mark. Thus it could be used as a very slow writing implement. I saw dozens of sooty names and dates going back to the early 1800s. That sounds a lot like the selfie impulse.
Bryan Cranston as Hal in Malcolm: he’s had some good roles over the years, hasn’t he? From a recurring role as Tim Whatley the dentist in Seinfeld to Walter White in Breaking Bad.
Yes, I guess we need to show that we were there, that we exist, that we matter. It’s something human.
Just came across this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mammoth_Cave_Gothic_Ave.jpg
Wow, amazing.
I think we will all get bored of this narcissistic obsession with social media and things will change - which is not to say that they will change for the better. Maybe it's my age, but we seem so obsessed with how fast and simply we can do things now, we wan't immediate results. We have lost the joy in the process and put too much value in the result.
Thanks for a great read. Really enjoyed it. As a child of the analogue era, I definitely recognized myself in this. Since I quit FB 2 years ago, I do post very occasionally for work on Instagram, but even still, some of it is “look at me/us” cringeworthy.
Thank you Julie! Yeah, once you start challenging your own posting habits you start noticing what others are doing much more.
I love how you write about social media brain! I too stopped posting much after I noticed I wasn’t enjoying my actual adventures, just getting high by myself at my computer because somebody I haven’t seen since 7th grade gave them a knee jerk like. I was also worried about what it would look like to my three young kids-- an addiction, and a sad one I hoped they wouldn’t emulate.
Thanks Shawna! That’s a great reason for quitting, I really wonder how the relationship to technology will be to the future generations.
I feel like it really could go either way. When my kids were really little they would talk about how weird it was that grownups in real life were always looking down at their hands and never up like they did in books and movies. But then when my oldest hit fifth grade, they really wanted a phone, too!
Really enjoyed this
Thanks!! And for sharing as well! ☺️
I used to shoot off an entire roll of 24 photos for concert-going, then wait to find out if anything was worth keeping. Yep, the olden days. 😁
The funnier thing is, I haven't keep a single one of those negatives or the prints. The image of the experience was eventually disposable, I knew where I'd been. How much more disposable images are decades later, because of digital technology, and because of social media.
I still keep family albums. Yes, I make family look at them. 😂
I'm late to this discussion but I appreciated this essay very much. I have struggled to figure out my relationship with various platforms. I'm a writer and I want to connect with people. At the same time, I am occasionally flattened by a feeling of oppression. I've given myself permission to engage how and when I want to. I've seen the cliff side park where i walk every morning fill with people and trash since it became a destination in IG. I used to take pictures but now I don't.
Thanks for your comment Anna. It reminded me of another very detrimental aspect of Instagram. It gives us a false sense of being connected with our family and friends and knowing what is going on with their lives. In reality, we have no idea, and we are far better by actually talking to them. But the scrolling steals time to do that and also gives us this biased view.