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- Hacker News
- I travel to tourist sites to take the exact same photo that is taken thousands of times every day because I have an above-average camera so I can take better quality photos than most other people lolby dllu
- Highly relevant: "I am an Instagram boyfriend" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaz6LVnKIk>by TMWNN
- Less than I expected?
I was in Japan with my family last year and I deeply enjoyed taking pictures of people queued up to take "that perfect instagramnable picture": a person alone in the torii gate, with a hundred people in a line just outside the frame.
I'm sure they enjoyed the trip just as well as I did tho.
by riffraff - If you do take a long-distance trip, the easiest way to cut carbon impact is to just not post about it. Social networks feed the envy that drives consumerism.by Jyaif
- Highly relevant advice if you want to cut your carbon footprint :-)by Markoff
- I think the causation is backwards here. If you find yourself in a memorable or interesting scene, you're going to want to document it.
I've wore out a DSLR doing this before social media really was a thing.
I've taken way more photos since a derecho decimated the trees in my town. I wanted to share these experiences with my distant friends and family.
I also learned that the utility bill I thought was way too high was a pittance compared to the cost in terms of money, time and effort running a gasoline generator.
by mikewarot - I would have thought it's more. Feels like everyone is taking pictures to post. Not to rememberby Bombthecat
- It’s about the competition. The actual experience is secondary.by lazide
- It's imitation, I think. Influencers traveling for clout isn't exactly new, and they got it from existing conventions on social media. So now everybody feels compelled to do the same, or they'll have something to explain.by tgv
- I used to be an avid amateur photographer and took a backpack full of gear anytime I’d visit tourist sites or anywhere cool. After a few years I stopped altogether because it dawned on me that I was missing the experience entirely. Now I just snap a few pics with my phone and try to enjoy the experience. Never did it for social media cred though.by xvxvx
- See, I think that's cool. It's like a hobby or craft that you're invested in. It feels different from taking lame photos with your smart phone just for the cred.by royal__
- I likewise used to bring a backpack full of gear, but I think the experience of traveling and taking pictures over and over again with the Big Nice Camera did a lot to hone my skills as a photographer.
I have photos I’m genuinely happy with, years later.
by klodolph - I feel like taking pictures is a fun experience in itself. For me, it isn't really "missing the experience". If anything, it makes me pay more attention to the amazing view and details that I'd have otherwise missed as I try to line up the shot perfectly.by dllu
- I'm the same way. It's hard to explain to loved ones why I take so many pictures of fucked up industrial buildings 10 minutes from my home, but don't bring any cameras with me when I travel.
When I'm in a new place, I want to be present within that place.
by ryukoposting - Every so often I see a news article about an instagram influencer that literally like, rolls off the side of a volcano while trying to capture "content", and I think to myself "well, I'm not surprised".
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=influence...
by walrus01 - You haven’t truly experienced an exceptional vantage point until you hear the influencer next to you say to his cameraman “Does my hair look windswept and interesting?”by JSR_FDED
- But were you influenced?by khazhoux
- The nice thing about others taking photos, is that I can focus on the odd ones. I have photos of really well made knots on a guiding rope, and street gutter stones.
You wanna see what Venice looks like in general? Just go on Tiktok; they have better equipment anyway. You wanna see, up close, the nicely carved gutter stones that handles water without breaking the stone pattern? I'm your photographer.
- Before social media, they would be taking photos (and later videos) just the same. In fact, before they became ubiquitous in phones, people used to buy cameras (and extra film) specifically for the purpose of using them in their travels.by userbinator
- Kinda - it used to be the reach of vacation photos was relatively limited, so the degree of aggressiveness was also relatively limited.
Going literally to just get photos was also somewhat limited, because who would be crazy enough to go just to get photos for a few friends and acquaintances and never even attempt to enjoy it? A limited number of people.
Social media has really amped it up, including the competitive aspect of it, and the number of people trying to be professional at it.
by lazide - Tell me you’re Gen Z without telling me you’re Gen Z.
No, it was not always thus. People would take a camera or a disposable camera, sure, but it wasn’t the focus - it was “oh we should grab a photo for aunt Mabel”. And you’d have 30 shots. For the entire trip.
by madaxe_again - Look at it this way: would those four out of ten people have visited those places if they weren't allowed to take any photos or videos? And how many would do a thing if they weren't allowed to tell anyone afterwards?by gherkinnn
- People take photos for multiple reasons.
I like the memories. I enjoy looking through a photo album many years down the line and reminiscing about a great trip.
People take photos to brag.
People take photos to prove to non-believers that something happened.
People take photos to capture beauty.
People used to take photos and people continue to take photos. I suspect the reason has changed.
by koliber - The survey result is 'nearly four in ten travellers (39%) say they have visited a tourist site mainly to take a photo or record a video.'
You, I believe, are making a different observation, which is that taking a photo or recording a film has long been a component of many tourist trips. Which is of course true.
I'll add that likely more people would have done so had film and film development been a lot cheaper. We certainly did trips in the 1980s where we took no camera, or if we did, only a few pictures or perhaps a single roll.
by eesmith - Was recently in Borneo, picked up a magazine in an accommodation, read an article about how traveling nowadays needs to be documented and is about experience as much as your feeds... I... felt old.
I think that in some cultures it's even more than others, for example I often saw hordes of Chinese tourists (but there are of course simply a lot of Chinese people) take turns in front of a waterfall (on flip flop or even heels), have some pics taken and go back to the bus.
I also visited food-markets and saw food stalls with large lines of people, where as some had hardly any people waiting, I ask: Why this stall? "It's popular on Chinese social media"... One by one they snapped a pic as the cook made their meal, and waited for >30 mins to do so.
People ask me when I travel (with family usually): Where is your Polarsteps? My what now? (Yeah yeah I know what it is I just pretend I don't.)
Amazing.
Edit: Also amazes me that many people told me: "Wow 5 weeks in Malaysia, you could have done Thailand, Vietnam, etc, etc as well!" Well yeah but I like to take some days to explore and not rush and get to know a nice restaurant and eat there again and rent a scooter or bike and drive around a bit. And sleep 2 nights in some small village that doesn't have a large temple or something and eat a great meal there for 2 euros, made by people that are very proud that you as a tourist sat down at their place and don't accept any tip. Moreover, there is a boatload of cool stuff in every country, to me this country hopping just adds travel time, not much more. Next time we'll visit another country, and if not, I still rather experience one country more deeply.
Another edit: Also an amazing thing, the amount of couples where the guy is holding a phone, making of a video of the girl while she dreamily walks through the sea waving her arms slowly, just looking around. Like a perfume commercial (what's up with those anyway?!), or like Hillary Clinton when the balloons fell. A-ma-zing, what a species we are.
by teekert - "Polarsteps is a popular travel planning, tracking, and sharing app that automatically plots your route on an interactive world map using your phone's GPS. It functions as a digital travel diary where you can add photos, videos, and stories, letting family and friends follow your journeys in real time."
for people like me who dunno about this secret, seems basically like Travelblog.org with few extra features
> article about how traveling nowadays needs to be documented and is about experience as much as your feeds... I... felt old.
this has nothing to do with nowadays really, people were documenting their travelling and sharing it with family/friends since invention of camera, personally I take photos to serve as my memory, not really to share them, I may share them through whatsapp private chats with my parents and maybe 1-2 friends who could find them interesting, in past I've had travel blog/diary as well, but certainly didn't visit any place or take any photo for my readers
> I often saw hordes of Chinese tourists (but there are of course simply a lot of Chinese people) take turns in front of a waterfall (on flip flop or even heels), have some pics taken and go back to the bus.
Japanese were doing this decades ago before Chinese, it's just that Chinese now have money (unlike Japanese who can less and less aford to travel abroad) and there is lot of them, so they just replaced Japanese doing this superfast photo tours (at least in Europe)
> I also visited food-markets and saw food stalls with large lines of people, where as some had hardly any people waiting, I ask: Why this stall? "It's popular on Chinese social media"... One by one they snapped a pic as the cook made their meal, and waited for >30 mins to do so.
again, nothing new, Lonely Planet guidebooks had same effect in past and for me they were pretty good list of places to avoid for accommodation/food
> Wow 5 weeks in Malaysia, you could have done Thailand, Vietnam, etc, etc as well!" Well yeah but I like to take some days to explore and not rush and get to know a nice restaurant and eat there again and rent a scooter or bike and drive around a bit.
5 weeks for mainland Malaysia is really a bit much, KL needs few days to city sightseeing and enjoy food, cameron highlands few days to do hiking, penang again few days to enjoy food, history and hiking, perhentian islands few days to snorkell and enjoy beach and you cover pretty much everything without repeating same stuff, <2 weeks in very very laidback pace for these 4 locations considering Malaysia is compact and there are cheap/fast air tickets/buses, I also don't like to rush, but not everyone has months long vacation or gap year to travel so people wanna see as many places as possible, so I can understand them, I spent travelling around SEA around year, but still can't imagine spending 5 weeks in row in Malaysia or basically any other country besides China (not in SEA, but neighbor), I would get bored
by Markoff - Polarsteps? Your what now?by p1anecrazy
- I really didn't know about Polarsteps. It's been a while since my last long journey. I used to select some pictures when I got back home and upload them to both my website and Facebook (the only time in the year I still used FB.) I also sent a few pictures to some friends of mine on WhatsApp when I was still travelling.by pmontra
- > hordes of Chinese tourists (but there are of course simply a lot of Chinese people) take turns in front of a waterfall (on flip flop or even heels), have some pics taken and go back to the bus
In the early 90s in my region in southern europe we'd joke that the only Chinese tourists you'd see would be referred to as "5min for photo". They always only needed 5mins to get out with camera, snap pics, get back in. This is not a new phenomenon.
by vasco - René Girard's theories on mimetic desire come to mind, even though I sometimes thing his thought was not as universal as some assume.
Maybe he was just describing a sickness of self-domesticated humans, or even Neoteny (babies need attention more...) finding a way to evolutionary adaptation but with large side-effects and massive selective wastage.
Or maybe resource constraints and competitive pressure within some societies make it a rational strategy to accumulate pictures of a 3 weeks' restful holiday in a one-week selfie-stick scramble.
by polotics