I don’t want to be that guy. That anti technology Luddite complaining about social media all the time, but this is something I need to get off my mind. So a couple weeks ago I went on a trip to New York City. Something like a field trip except we're in college so we have just a bit more freedom. But anyway we were crossing over the water entering the confines of the big apple early in the morning. Having driven through the night in a luxurious coach bus we arrived at the city around 7 am. The rising sun was gleaming incandescent atmosphere off the glass and steel of dozens of skyscrapers while the whole skyline was perfectly silhouetted against the tangerine clouds hanging atop the violet horizon. It was simply breathtaking. Even I, someone who is not a huge fan of New York City, (I prefer the smaller, cleaner Chicago) was taken aback by the beauty of one of modern America’s great marvels. But as I was silently enjoying this timely work of art, something happened that rather grinded my gears. Everyone, and I mean everyone, whipped out their phone and started snapping mindless, random pics. Pictures for Twitter, pictures for their Snapchat stories, pictures for their timelines from the Gram to Facebook. I was disappointed that they felt the need to prove that they were doing something cool, or that they were accomplishing something. For me just being there and seeing it was enough. I actively chose not to take a picture then, nor at any other time that I was within the walls of the city. I was, and still am content with that decision. I saw it, absorbed it through my eyes, analyzed through my brain and now the image will live in infamy within the caverns of my memory.

But. Perhaps I am being too harsh. The main caveat for myself is that I would rather describe something I saw with words rather than mindlessly take a picture of it and have the machine do all the work. But it occurred to me that to some people, taking pictures was their form of expression, just as writing the words and putting together sentences was mine. So those who take pictures non stop aren’t all bad. It’s just the ones that do it for solely social purposes. And I mean stupid social purposes. I mean putting it on your Snapchat story to prove to your friends that you do things. The experience should be enough.

At the same time I think that some things are meant to be photographed because if we could just capture everything’s beauty through sentences and speech, then what would we need cameras for? Or pictures? Or corneas for that matter.

I guess what I’m saying is you should take pictures only if you have good intentions. Good intentions to enrich someone else’s life with your work, maybe adding a thought or idea to their perception of a place, object, or reality as a whole. Pictures should not be to benefit yourself. Shouldn’t make you feel good about yourself for doing things so your followers know that you are. You should do things to do them. Just like words and ideas, pictures shouldn’t improve your own experience on this earth, but the experience of others.