“Pics or it didn’t happen!” How many times have we all heard this challenge from one of our friends regarding even the most mundane happenings, like our latest high score in Mario Kart.
How many times per football game have we all heard a girl’s frantic demand that someone get a picture?
Both of these requests have become commonplace in today’s society to the point we don’t even notice their existence. But more importantly, these occurrences have begun to dominate our lives.
We all know that girl who has upwards of 50 albums on Facebook, meticulously documenting her entire life from her very first high school dance to this week’s big party. We also all know that person who uses Instagram to capture every last detail of their day, beginning with an artsy picture of the sunrise, moving on to a picture of whatever sandwich he or she might be eating for lunch and ending with a snapshot of piles of books and notes purposefully displayed across a desk to represent the mountains of homework they will soon attempt. These scenarios have me wondering why we are all so consumed with not only telling but also showing everyone our lives.
It all has to do with validation. For the same reason we go to great lengths to get the picture when we are confronted with the “Pics or it didn’t happen” rule, we go out of our way to make it into at least a few pictures on each of our friend’s iPhones at various events. Are we worried people might forget we were there and having a great time, too?
In his essay, “Experience,” Emerson said words and theories get in the way of the irreplaceable experience of living. I would argue that pictures do the same for us today.
Often we are so busy making sure we get the perfect shot for a new profile picture that we forget to enjoy the activity we are so concerned with visually recording. A perfect example of this is at prom during the dreaded “pictures” portion of the night, when we were forced to stand in standard idiotic poses and create awkward formations while being yelled at by the myriad of family members who had come to see the big day (and take pictures).
I’m not saying we should never take pictures. I, myself, am guilty of committing many of the faux pas discussed in this article. If you go through my pictures on Facebook, there are hundreds from just my senior year of high school where you can literally relive everyday of my life from Homecoming week to graduation. And even though my hometown is only 45 minutes away from Tuscaloosa, my dorm room walls are still covered with pictures of my family and friends.
We do, however, need to reevaluate the importance we place on picture taking over actual socializing and ultimately living.
When you miss a game-changing play during the fourth quarter of a big game because you were turned around getting a picture, it might be time to put down the camera and start living. If you have to plaster a fake smile on your face and get a picture in order to convince yourself you’re having the best night of your life, it might be time to put down the camera.
The bottom line is, if something is truly worth remembering, you’re going to remember it with or without a picture to prove it.
Tara Massouleh is a freshman majoring in journalism and English. Her column runs on Wednesdays.
