Too often, people are mocked and ridiculed for loving to take photos for social media. I need to justify why this is okay and shouldn’t bother anyone…
Looking back on high school, I realize I don’t have many photos of myself in any homecoming dresses or with my girlfriends, and even though I joke about being grateful to never run into an old picture of myself, it’d be nice to see them once in a while to be able to reflect. It isn’t the superficial factor of seeing how pretty I looked or how cute my date was or how much fun it looked like my girlfriends and I were having…it was always about going back to a moment I’d never be able to go back to. It was about seeing my past since I can’t relive it.
From time to time, there’ll be a cute girl whose goal is to be “Instagram Famous” and the girl or guy who keeps track of which friend coldly unfollowed them, but I think more times than we realize, most people acknowledge attention but truly only wanted the world to see the happiness in their photo.
Posting can be addicting. To be able to know a photo of ours is posted somewhere for people to possibly see is a weird sensation. For example, I have a VSCO, an app I post my almost, but not quite, Instagram-worthy photos. I'm sure no one sees them. Barely anyone knows what a VSCO is, so I wouldn’t be surprised if no one has seen them. It’s odd to want to post even if no one will see, but I do it.
Another beautiful thing about photos is the simplest photo can make our day. For example, the photo of the cat above captured via snapchat. One of the best photos yet because I love cat paws, and the cat's paws are featured in the picture.
Photos don't need to be extravagant, entirely unique or perfectly thought out...it's what memory we choose to want to remember.
Social media can either be taken so seriously, jokingly, extremely casually, or non-existent in one’s life so there is no reaction.
Sometimes accounts show different effort with the quality of their photos, but either way, a photo is a photo. A memory is a memory and if it’s caught in a photo, someone chose for that very moment to be remembered and cherished forever. So let's stop ridiculing those who love being involved in social media.
