This Life Gives You Nothing

I seldom post pictures to my blog. In fact, I seldom take pictures at all. Often I have to remind myself to do so out of some primordial obligation to future me to "remember" that particular moment. I like to imagine it's because I grew up at a time when taking a picture was something one carefully considered, because film was not an endless commodity, and you had to make an effort to get the film developed and processed. This essay I came across entitled This Life Gives You Nothing at a blog entitled Blackbird Skyplane is perhaps one of the most insightful essays on the modern mindset I've ever read.

If I am reading the authors' thesis correctly, it is that the modern mind, heavily influenced by the smartphone, now thinks about what it sees framed as a moment to be digitized rather than experienced. In short, one sees a scene in nature, and rather than enjoying and experiencing the scene, immediately grabs the phone's camera and digitizes it for the purpose of sharing via social media. We no longer think "what a nice moment for me to experience;" we think "what a nice moment for me to post to my blog/Instagram/Mastadon/etc. site and share."

Recently I posted the observation that in order to get mentioned on the Discovery Feed for MB, one pretty much had to take pictures. Words were not prioritized, and so it's hard to find good writing on MB, and easier to find beautiful pictures. Finding pictures is easier because it has less friction than finding words and good thinking. To find a good blog post, you have to invest time to read it. Good pictures can be found in an instant. Perhaps the people who are responsible for populating the Discovery Feed don't have enough time to read, or their mindset prioritizes images over words.

I've recently dug up the three digital cameras I own and have charged their batteries. Two are pocket cameras. After reading this essay, I think I am going to start carrying around one of those pocket cameras and take pictures with it instead of the phone. It will add a layer of friction to the urge to post pictures, and perhaps that will help me be more attentive to the present moment.

I think the widespread impulse to take a photo of everything is in fact, at root, a creative one. It reflects a desire to not just receive life passively, but to intervene in it creatively: To frame the shot, to find the most compelling angle, to draw out the emotion, to honor the light… to participate. The problem is that the cameraphone, connected as it is to our online lives, doesn’t just serve the creative impulse and stop there. It risks cannibalizing that impulse, co-opting it, colonizing it, and ultimately thwarting it. Because the cameraphone allows us so readily to stop noticing the thing we’re photographing, and instead to outsource our experience of experiencing to the phone, much like we’ve outsourced our sense of direction to Google Maps.

h/t Starlight Underground