Instant photography and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
I must not be the only person on this site with a similar sentiment. The obsession with and accessibility of instant digital photography has fundamentally changed the way in which people interact within the world. People no longer live experiences; they record them. The Western world and parts of Asia I believe have been the most heavily affected by this dreadful phenomenon. Billions of humans that now think it is totally normal to broadcast extremely intimate parts of their lives (mundane things too of course) to the greater population. Not to the mention the privacy ramifications that have arisen as a result. As Richard Stallman said, and I’m paraphrasing slightly here; “Cellphones would have been Stalans dream”. People now willingly upload their crimes onto social media platforms. That is really the level of information desensitisation that we are dealing with here. The worst part is that due to the rising levels of technological integration in our daily lives it Is getting harder and harder to simply opt out (at least for most “normal” people). And, on top of that, even if you DO choose to opt out, you will most likely STILL be integrated into the system via third parties one way or another; (Family/Work photographs, mandatory identification for more and more mundane issues, security cameras, random people filming for social media on the street, non libre software, e.t.c…) . At this point unless you are a proper hiki/recluse (an ideal that is sadly not feasible for most people) you are forced into the system. What was once an optional tool has slowly become, through gradual behavioural decay, an item that most would not even be able to conceive living without. Sort of digital Stockholm syndrome I guess. In terms of mitigation tactics I come up empty handed. I thought we could maybe generate some ideas in this thread regarding what could be done about this. Above all else, if you still possess a smartphone I would highly suggest that you really reflect on how necessary it is to you and consider getting rid of it. If you really need long distance communication, use mail or a “dumbphone”, if you love photography as an artform, use an actual camera and if you enjoy music while out of the house, simply download the songs and put them onto an mp3 player.
I must not be the only person on this site with a similar sentiment. The obsession with and accessibility of instant digital photography has fundamentally changed the way in which people interact within the world. People no longer live experiences; they record them. The Western world and parts of Asia I believe have been the most heavily affected by this dreadful phenomenon. Billions of humans that now think it is totally normal to broadcast extremely intimate parts of their lives (mundane things too of course) to the greater population. Not to the mention the privacy ramifications that have arisen as a result. As Richard Stallman said, and I’m paraphrasing slightly here; “Cellphones would have been Stalans dream”. People now willingly upload their crimes onto social media platforms. That is really the level of information desensitisation that we are dealing with here. The worst part is that due to the rising levels of technological integration in our daily lives it Is getting harder and harder to simply opt out (at least for most “normal” people). And, on top of that, even if you DO choose to opt out, you will most likely STILL be integrated into the system via third parties one way or another; (Family/Work photographs, mandatory identification for more and more mundane issues, security cameras, random people filming for social media on the street, non libre software, e.t.c…) . At this point unless you are a proper hiki/recluse (an ideal that is sadly not feasible for most people) you are forced into the system. What was once an optional tool has slowly become, through gradual behavioural decay, an item that most would not even be able to conceive living without. Sort of digital Stockholm syndrome I guess. In terms of mitigation tactics I come up empty handed. I thought we could maybe generate some ideas in this thread regarding what could be done about this. Above all else, if you still possess a smartphone I would highly suggest that you really reflect on how necessary it is to you and consider getting rid of it. If you really need long distance communication, use mail or a “dumbphone”, if you love photography as an artform, use an actual camera and if you enjoy music while out of the house, simply download the songs and put them onto an mp3 player.