It's a Saturday afternoon, and you and your friends are at a beautiful restaurant in the city. When the waiter comes out with the food, you smile and excitedly wait for your plate to be placed in front of you. As the waiter tells you not to touch the plate because it is hot, you pick up your phone, which never left the table, and start to take pictures of your delicious meal on Instagram and Snapchat. Lastly, you finish off by sending your Instagram post to Facebook. Afterwards, you and your friends take a trip to the beach to watch the sunset. The beautiful colors of orange, purple, and red create a blended majestic scene upon the calm waters of the ocean. You take out your phone and Snapchat and Instagram one last time before really looking at what is in front of you.
The “Picture Taking” phenomenon has taken off since social media has become numerous applications for a person’s cell phone. Instagram and Snap-chat are wonderful to journal one’s life, but it is also slowly hurting people’s ability to live and enjoy in the moment. Now, these social media sites are not to blame, but rather the behavior and trend of picture documentation that has become popular among men and women of all ages.
Memory and Moment
What people do not understand is that when they constantly take pictures of everything they do, everywhere they go, and who they are with, makes the moment in question less memorable. There is nothing wrong with taking a picture of one’s dinner at a restaurant every once in a while, but there is a problem if you had to take a picture at breakfast and lunch also. If you are out to dinner with your friends or family, be with your friends and family. Your cell phone should remain in your purse or pocket until after the meal. I am not even going to get into “texting while at the table.” It is rude, and you completely miss some of the time you get to spend with the people you care about the most. What is the picture worth? Why do you really need to take a picture of your pasta? Experts in psychology have affirmed that taking pictures in the moment actually impair your memory to remember the event later on. When you use the zoom in button on your phone, you cancel out everything around you, and for that moment, you are focused solely on the object you are taking a picture of. So maybe tomorrow, you will obviously remember what happened and what you ate, but what about a year from that moment? Probably not so much. Not that it's possible to remember what you ate a year ago, but what if it was your birthday or your college graduation dinner? I would think you would want to remember that along with everything about it.
The Relation between Psychology and Documenting Food
People take pictures that mean something to them. People take pictures of their food because that food mentally means stability to that person. Studies have shown that people who are pre-disposed to weight gain or have weight problems will more likely take pictures of their food throughout the day than others who are not. Other experts have defended the photo-taking event by saying that waiting to eat your food by taking a picture is a sign of self-control.
Identity Management and Social Media
This phenomenon of constant picture taking and documenting on social media is a form of Identity Management. This communication term is defined as “the administration of individual identities within a system, company, network, or country.” People manage their identities and self-concept of who they think they are and want to be online. They do this through their pictures and posts that show who they are friends with and what they do. To manage these identities, people must keep up with their mirrored self of the person they want other people to believe they are. People who constantly take pictures of what they eat, especially if it is at an expensive restaurant, want other people to know that they have money, have a social life, go out to popular places, and is not a loner. You can easily see this with first year freshmen in college. These individuals who just graduated high school want to branch out and seek new adventures. You can clearly notice that freshman take pictures of themselves with all their new friends and post them on their social sites to let their old friends and high school peers know that they are successful and making it on their own in college. No one wants to be known as the kid that “couldn’t leave high school behind.” Secondly, you can see how seniors in college do not post as many pictures of themselves with their new friend groups as their priorities have shifted from caring about what people think to what job they will get when they graduate college.
Don’t be Afraid to Enjoy the Sunsets…Just as They Are
There is nothing wrong with taking pictures of where you go, what you eat, or who you are with to memorialize the moment. The problem begins when picture taking becomes a routine. When this happens, you forget the beauty and importance of staying in the moment and embracing the time you have with those you love. When the moment is gone, it will never come back. Nothing ever happens the same way twice. If you find yourself at the beach and you see a beautiful sunset, try waiting before you take a picture. Take the moment in before you create one on your phone. Smell the air and the mixture of salt and sand. Feel the ground with your toes and try to never forget what it feels like. Take a good look around you and lose yourself in those purple and red colors of the magnificent giant over the ocean. Remember, if you did not take a picture, it did happen. Never forget that you have nothing to prove to anyone.
