I am trudging through deep Icelandic snow on a hike to Reykjadalur Valley, the wind so powerful that it continuously knocks me down. The sky is grey as it rains down snow that pierces my face and neck. I shiver under my four thick layers of winter clothes. I have never seen anything like this place. Its beauty is mesmerizing. Deep snow as far as the eye can see, a winding river babbling in the distance. I am hiking in a vast abyss. There is no saturation. It's like being trapped in a black and white movie and I keep waiting for a tornado to sweep me up into a land of color. The wind seems powerful enough to do just that.

Around me are my thirteen fellow hikers. They are just as awestruck by the unique beauty of this country. They are just as cold beneath their layers. At some point along the hike, each one of us has stopped to pull out our phone and snap a photo. Posing in a cloud of white. Looking far into the distance, burying our hiking poles, stripping our faces of goggles and gators for this one photo. We must look adventurous. It is not enough to be in Iceland, to be hiking in the midst of a blizzard strong enough to blow us down the mountain, if we do not capture the perfect shot. We must freeze this moment in case our memory alone fails us. And if we get a perfect shot, a shot that seems to capture exactly how we felt in that moment while also making us look really cool, then we can think about posting to Instagram.

Now, I can honestly say that I did not travel all the way to the edge of the world for the sake of some Instagram pictures. Nobody in my group did. We came to see a side of the world we had not yet explored. We came to experience a new culture, to feel the unmatchable bliss that coincides with standing beneath a waterfall in the bitter cold, or feeling the wind against our faces, completely out of breath, as we reach the top of a mountain.

And yet, Instagram was certainly on my mind. I spent the car rides scrolling through my photos, trying to pick the best ones. And when I finally had Wi-Fi, I uploaded that perfect shot. My chance to show off my trip, to let my followers know just how cold I was, how happy, how adventurous. At the same time, I scrolled through my feed to see my friends on their own adventures. Pictures from Egypt, Hawaii, Belgium, Scotland and Aruba filled my screen. Some people posted five or six pictures in a row, posing seductively by a waterfall or staring with wonder toward an unseen marvel in the distance. I had noticed the phenomenon before of sharing travel pictures. It makes sense. I enjoy seeing the pictures that my friends upload and living vicariously through their adventures. They let me daydream about journeying even further one day.

Of course, travel photos on social media are an extension of the overall social media craze. We are addicted to posting, to viewing, to sharing and tweeting. With a travel photo, we can spice up our usually mundane blogs. Before my Iceland trip, my Instagram was overflowing with pictures of my pet rodents. The side of an Icelandic mountain is far more enchanting to my followers than my hamster eating a peanut. Nature photos provide a change. They are perhaps more interesting to view than a selfie taken in a living room or the fact that Ed learned how to organize his closet in a new and different way.

Still, people travel to get away, to escape from the stresses at home, to feel something new. Social media, in a way, prevents them from escaping. It keeps them right at home with Ed and his closet. I am not sure if this is a bad thing or not. Like I said, I love looking at other people's photos as much as I love sharing my own. The photos open up our eyes to other parts of the world, they encourage us to travel, feed our passion for exploration. I believe the answer is in finding balance between living in the moment and attempting to capture that perfect shot. The best way to prevent social media from taking over the most precious moments in our lives is to live in the moment. Take the picture, but post it later. Don't worry about taking the perfect shot, just focus on living and enjoying every day as fully as possible.