When I was young in the 90's we used to go to music festivals. It was nice to be with your friends, just relax and enjoy some music.
Years ago I went back to the same festival, and what I notice what changed immensely was that everyone was taking pictures and selfies with smartphones. It was so weird to see. Plus, what used to be a Rock festival was now a Pop festival (everyone needed to be there).
Somehow nowadays, you don't only enjoy yourself, but you have to broadcast it that you're enjoying yourself. For me, that takes away a big part of the enjoyment.
Some years ago I went to see the ball drop at NYC. It was a terrible experience. Every single person I saw had their phone out, the only thing I could see was flashes, everywhere. Nobody was seeing anything with naked eyes, just through their cameras. It was weird.
If you live/work in tourist spots, you can’t walk 10 feet without getting interrupted by a tourist taking their stupid, duck face picture. It is near impossible to enjoy anything in peace these days. I blame it all on social media. I can’t wait for all social media to die, but that’s not gonna happen, Is it?
Mid-summer, 2020, we hopped in the car and drove to Nice, France. It was in a lull of COVID so we were able to walk around without masks for the most part. It was amazing to go to the "hip" tourist spots and be one of the only ones there, just enjoying the view. <sigh> now the tourists are all over the place in my own city and it is annoying af.
Off season travel is great for exactly this reason. Well, being bound to school holidays limits your options. One thing worth to remind ourselves of when travelling or seeing tourists were we live: We are either locals, but at much more places we clearly are the visitors. The trick is to behave like a visitor and not like tourists being only that many letters removed from a terrorist.
Something's gotta give. I don't think we can take it much further. I hope it's a passing fad. Once everybody shares everything it's not special anymore so how do you stand out? Having no online presence might become a new flex.
Does it interrupt the photographer when I pay them no mind and walk in front of them? Their muttered curses say yes. Therefore, photographers interrupt everybody else in the area who, unlike me, feel compelled by some social convention to give photographers a cone of exclusion in front of the camera.
Politeness goes both ways, photographers should try to be as discreet as possible. And others should pay some attention to what others do around them, including photographers.
Calling them photographers is being generous and this is not the place for your personal photo shoot. Sorry but after the 200th time of trying to walk down a crowded street in New York and waiting for someone to finish taking a group selfie, I'm done with that.
> Making TikTok by playing loud music creates a nuisance for pilgrims from all over the world who come to the birthplace of Gautama Buddha
> Over recent months, there have been reports of TikTok creators storming farms and trampling crops, and even causing traffic jams while shooting. Chamomile farmers in Morang in eastern Nepal were forced to harvest their crop early, as some TikTokers trampled on their crop. In Kathmandu, a popular street that was decorated with colorful umbrellas to attract tourists after the Covid-19 slump went viral on TikTok, and authorities were forced to shut it down as creators flocked to the area, leading to traffic congestion.
On New Year’s Eve at NYC, the streets are jam packed. There is barely any space to move. Everyone around you has their camera out, trying to take photos of the ball drop. The only thing you can see are flashes. Then you’d curse yourself for waiting for hours in the cold, only to see flashes.
On a normal day in NYC tourist areas, it is common for tourists (especially younger women) to take pictures every few feet. Initially you’d be polite and not walk into their frame, but this gets old super quick. You’re irritated, they’re irritated (because you didn’t pause for their dumb photo shoot)… ruins everyone’s day. All you wanted was to walk uninterrupted.
I used to live and work in upper east side. Took me a while to get used to it
>How does it interrupt you for someone else to be taking a photo of themselves?
Blocking one's path for once, even more so with telescope sticks and of course taking pictures with one in the background without consent. I live near one such touristic area where there's a rather narrow sidewalk. In the summer it is like running the gauntlet. I'm too often too nice by first letting people finish their posing and taking pictures, only that frequently even 5 selfies seem not enough because they didn't get that perfect angle right for the 'insta'.
Yes, you can stand in the middle of a narrow path and use a selfie stick to take photos. No, you shouldn't do that if it inconveniences everybody around you. Doing so anyways makes you a self-centered dickhead.
You’re not ‘doing’ anything to someone by taking a photo in public with them in the background. You don’t have reasonable expectations and it’s fine for reasonable people to disregard them.
It's one thing to shove a camera in someone's face. It's another for people to have any reasonable expectation of not getting into even the background of a photo when walking down a city street or in some other busy place.
I used to work down the road from a big tourist attraction in London. Every lunch hour, I’d need to walk past a mass of people congregating outside the building taking photos, among other things (like forming a circle around a busker, taking up even more space).
I could try wait for a dozen people to finish taking photos (and it’s never just one photo, selfie or otherwise).
Or, after a couple weeks of this, I just stopped caring and would walk past them irrespective of interrupting someones shot. Now if they made an effort to leave an easily navigable gap behind the photographer so I could walk past without interrupting, sure, I did that. Most didn’t.
There’s still a lingering uncomfortability knowing I might be recorded forever in someone’s social media feed or whatever they do with the photos. Yes I know, it’s a public space and all.
For me, I try to be polite and not get in the way of someone trying to take a picture of someone on a bridge across a sidewalk for example. But it can get to the point where I'm just rude and pretend I don't see them. At least selfie sticks seem to have become less common--probably because smartphones are often available with wider lenses today.
I live in Japan now and live performances tend to have somewhat strict no photography rules. I believe the same is true in Korea/with K-pop acts.
Most foreigners are pretty taken aback when they encounter this, but I really like it. Not only do you not have to stare at everyone else's smartphone screen but it also removes any temptation to yourself to "preserve a memory"
First culture shock when I visited Japan in 2015 was when I pulled out my phone to take a snapshot of the airport express train arriving. Every Japanese person in my line of sight either darted away or covered their faces with their hands. That day I learned it was taboo to take snapshots like this, even if your subject is some inanimate object like a train if there are people around.
Seems this is Japan specific, as I have not encountered this in Korea or Hong Kong.
Really? I can't say I have ever noticed this in Japan and I've been there a number of times. And pre-digital it was Japanese who were notorious for snapping pictures of anything and everything.
In the US, live theater usually has very strict rules about any sort of recording. I've seen ushers on Broadway rushing to block people from even taking a picture of the empty stage before a show or shooting a selfie at curtain call. Live popular music is more of a mixed bag.
No longer common since the ubiquity of mobile phones. You usually still can't bring any cameras with interchangeable lenses (e.g. a DSLR), or a high quality audio recorder°, but IME the only shows that do anything to prevent all recording are stand-up comedy acts.
I tape (audio) fairly openly at a lot of shows, most venues (or at least those who work for the venues) don't appear to care these days as long as it's not taking up space/getting in the way.
And a lot of artists are also pretty tolerant at this point of it. For example, The guy who runs the excellent (unofficial) live archive for NIN, got an invite to meet the band rather than a cease & desist.
Cultures are different. In my country it's common courtesy to mind your own business and don't tell other people what to do. Personal freedom versus conformity.
If you're the kind of person who gets annoyed easily at others instead of ignoring them as we are taught you won't last 5 minutes.
I saw chapelle in NYC years back (the before pandemic times), they really did this. You can hang onto your phone, its just locked in a neoprene type bag.. On the way out they have a device to open it (kind of like security tags on clothes..).
It’s not a totally new phenomenon, but it’s gotten much worse. I remember as a kid, my mom would interrupt $enjoyable_experience to take photos for the family album. It would totally take me out of the flow as a kid and is why most of my childhood pictures are of me with an annoyed expression. In fact, most of my adult pictures feature the same expression for the same reason. Only, now my wife is the one with the camera.
How come taking a picture of you playing in the yard "takes you out of the flow"? x) You make it sound like you were writing assembly or something.
For me, I look back on pictures and tapes of my childhood with joy. I'm glad my parents recorded those things and I can go back and see how things were when I was 3 or 8 or 12.
"Wait wait, do that again so I can get a picture of it! No no you were over here, don't face this way do what you were doing before just pretend I'm not here. What's wrong, you were having fun a minute ago stop pouting!"
Camera people can be really obnoxious like this, particularly to young children who haven't yet learned the value in humoring their parents. I always hated it when my mother got out the camera. If she had stood back and taken pictures without trying to arrange everything for the 'perfect' pictures it wouldn't have been such an issue. But that's not how it ever went.
As a hobbyist photographer (well, I do it less, now that everyone is taking pictures all the time), I do not at all like interrupting real life to pose a picture. I don't want that picture. I want a picture of actual real life. If the person I am taking a picture of changes what they're doing because I took a picture, then I have messed up.
This so much! Sure, a photographer has a presence and influences shots of people. But tgat influence can be minimized. It is hard so, maybe a reason why I largely prefer landscapes and architecture!
> How come taking a picture of you playing in the yard "takes you of the flow"?
Not the person you are replying to, but I can explain to you how it was "taking me out of the flow", because I have the exact same feeling about my mother and taking pictures.
If it was just her taking pictures while I was doing something like playing in the yard, that wouldn't be an issue. However, it was never just this. It was always "ok ok, hold up, one sec, can you stand over there to the right and look in this direction and smile?" whenever we went somewhere that was supposed to be a fun experience that wasn't a part of the daily routine. As a kid, you can imagine, stopping doing whatever fun thing I was doing just to awkwardly pose for a photo I don't care about in the slightest for a few mins, it was an aggravating and not a fun experience.
I actually would not have minded at all if she took pictures of me while i was doing something without interrupting and stopping everything. To this day, I find photos of me (and just in general) taken "naturally" (without stopping things and everyone posing intentionally) to be the best all around. They just look real and looking back at them makes the memories of that moment flow back into my head much stronger.
> To this day, I find photos of me (and just in general) taken "naturally" (without stopping things and everyone posing intentionally) to be the best all around
100% my impression too. Photos where no one is trying to "pose" are the best (with few exceptions). But my significant other disagrees. She feels there's no point in such photos. We've agreed to leave it at that.
In addition, I gather a sense of happiness curating photos a few months after the photos were taken. I tend to remember the details of such events in a lot more detail and for much longer. I remember much less looking at a picture of us posing for a scenic background as compared to a picture of just her, in the moment, doing something.
I now enjoy capturing 20 second videos of me and family doing whatever, with no one trying to pose, they just look at me with the phone and smile or wave. The background conversations captured in them string together a lot of precious moments and memories.
Not OP, but had/have the same. It's because the person taking the photo doesn't want to capture the moment, they want to capture a choreographed moment, where everyone is looking at the camera, smiling etc. The same photo as everywhere else, but there.
As a child you don't have to be writing assembly to be immersed in something. If someone takes a picture it suddenly makes you conscious of yourself rather than what you are immersed in.
I like to take a couple of photos for my album when I am doing some activity I'd like to remember (say, visiting a place on vacation). It's pretty important to me.
However, I dislike two things
1.) Doing it for every small activity
2.) Broadcasting it on social media
For 1.), I find that I don't really benefit from every walk around town or whatever in my albums. It's more enjoyable to remember significant moments - and there are quite enough I think.
For 2.) I find that to find a good representation of what is happening, I need to alter my behavior. Instead of taking two to five pictures, I need to take videos and hundreds of pictures etc. As others have mentioned, this kills the actual thing. Instead of "I visited place X and did Y", it becomes "I took photos and videos at place X pretending to do Y".
So the sweet spot is in between. I am very happy to have taken some photos - even selfies - in the past, and I wish I would have taken slightly more photos (or better ones, or videos) in the past, before we had such nice phone cameras.
Pictures are great to remember moments. For that, we need enough pictures of these moments - but we also need to have made memories. We need to have experienced the actual thing.
Pictures that go on social media are marketing. They have a different purpose.
Same usually happens at any metal show I go to. I remember when people actually immersed themselves in the experience. Now they stand completely still, mouth a gape, and film the whole thing on their phones as if no one else will do so and upload it to YouTube later.
Given how supposedly unhappy people are, I think society really needs a spiritual awakening.
well the out of touch thing is not realizing that theyre broadcasting to their friends, its not about pretending that they’ll watch it at a future date
the interactivity is leaps and bounds higher and more fulfilling
I don’t record more than a couple 15 second videos, at an event, choosing to consciously “be present”, but from those broadcasts I get friends trying to find me there, I get introductions to their friends, I get dates from people that want to share in the energy at a future event, I get hookups - I sold an extra ticket at a festival by posting w/ the right hashtag and the girl was attractive and liked me and I hung out with her squad all day and into the morning
There was nothing unhappy about it
in a big crowd everyone is doing this at different intervals
even another commenter’s interpretation about “broadcasting that you’re having fun means youre not having fun” is way off the mark, its a beacon for other people to come be part of the fun. at least there is some self-awareness here about old man yelling at clouds.
people here are extrapolating reasons that are wildly incorrect, instead of just nonjudgementally asking people to get a wide variety of modern answers.
I do this at concerts, but mostly because I feel like a lot of venues I go to are flat, and as a short person there is almost always a sea of taller people blocking my eye-level view.
Ugh, you just reminded me of a random concert in a park I went to a few weeks ago. Everyone was just chilling on their blankets watching the show. As more and more people showed up, they just started standing around all the people with kids on the blankets, blocking our view.
We ended up leaving pretty early because it became pointless once people literally started standing on our stuff. I swear, venues oversell things to the point where it is too crowded to actually enjoy it.
But wouldn't you like to watch all those concerts again today, just to reminisce?
We have the technology now and I can't really fault people for using it.
Selfies I could go without, especially when the subject of the photo is something else and the only reason for putting yourself into the shot is proving it really happened.
Is this something you actually do? Watch a crummy video of a song you know, with the sound distorted to cracks and pops? I never understood the appeal, knowing I was there is, and should be, enough.
Also, someone remembers your phone in front of their view.
I think you're begging the question by describing it up front as 'crummy'.
A band I like play very differently when live to when recording, almost like a different vibe. It's great that some people have recorded it as otherwise there wouldn't be any way to remember it.
My main gripe is with disturbing the attendees who paid for a ticket and went to the live show. You getting to see the show through other peoples phones is not something the paying guests care about, but have to suffer for anyway.
I find the phone screens distracting my view with their light to be pretty annoying at a live show. I try not to be too judgemental as I typically will record about 15 seconds of a band that I'm seeing to send to my son and someone else in the crowd could be doing the same thing. People have become content creators for better or worse.
Maybe there could be a "concert" mode on your phone that turns down brightness to a low percentage and cuts the view down to a quarter of your screen.
> I never understood the appeal, knowing I was there is, and should be, enough.
The video captured that couple in front of you who were ridiculous, and that nudged you to remember talking about them afterwards with your friends. You wouldn't have remembered it otherwise because memory is not very durable or accurate at the best of times.
This is why everyone should follow the lead of Dead & Company and offer places to patch in to the sound system so people can record high-quality bootlegs
Not the OP but as someone who has attended many concerts and music festivals I can say I have no desire to watch any of them again. I have my memories of them and would rather spend my time making new ones.
Yeah, I think it's impossible to encapsulate feelings anyway. I think we think we remember how something feels, but we just simulate it on demand, and there's no way to tell the difference.
While the percentage of time is surely low, the high concentration of people per area means the frequency with which you encounter it can be quite high. I personally don't care much about being in random people's selfies, but having to constantly dodge people taking random pictures is definitely an annoyance when you're already trying to navigate a crowded space.
Years ago I went back to the same festival, and what I notice what changed immensely was that everyone was taking pictures and selfies with smartphones. It was so weird to see. Plus, what used to be a Rock festival was now a Pop festival (everyone needed to be there).
Somehow nowadays, you don't only enjoy yourself, but you have to broadcast it that you're enjoying yourself. For me, that takes away a big part of the enjoyment.
I'll stop my old man's rant now ;).