You tried it Instagram

My late dad had a film camera which is super heavy, but it did its job to capture so many great family moments. Looking back, it was a pretty little thing that people would quickly call a classic these days. I loved snapping photos when I was a kid with that camera. I was one of the few kids in school that would actually bring a camera to school, but I had no sense of framing whatsoever.

Moving into the city for college and slighty after that, I had friends who would lend me their digital camera to play around with. I remember wishing so hard that I could have one of my own without feeling so guilty of holding someone else’s. When I finally got a job and saved money, I bought myself a cute little Canon camera because it was the cheapest and smallest to fit in my jeans pocket. I was so happy with it, I took it everywhere I go and documented so many moments — unfortunately some of those external hard drives died, and so were some of my early 2000’s memories. R.I.P. indeed.

That is exactly why I think the film era was great because you are so careful with what you snap, have it developed and you are able to view it from the book anytime you want. These days, you have to go through endless folders just to find that one photo. I miss the days when I would just browse through my photo albums for no reason. I can’t even do that now.

Back then, I had a Flickr account and I had built a couple of friendships with amazing photographers. They were delivering kickass snaps with legit cameras, while I was still on my small little camera but they were not judging me, well not that I know of. You like their photos and you add them to your Favourites page and it will always look amazing. You also follow your desired photo groups of certain photography style. It still is one of the best place for photographers in my opinion. Oh, I think people were posting photos on MySpace and Friendster at this point too. I miss MySpace.

After a while, cameras were being introduced on the phone and that changed everything again. It was grainy, but it was okay without me realising that I have killed the quality of the photos from a proper camera. I remembered having a Sony Ericsson W600i, Nokia E6, Blackberry Bold and Nokia Lumia before I finally decided on my iPhone. The iPhone delivered the best camera quality even though it was only a 5C because it was the cheapest selection. You may realise how frugal I am by this point.

Of course Instagram happened and it is never the same again. We upload photos from our smartphones, use filters that are provided with the app or other apps, add a dramatic/narcissistic/shameless/funny/stupid caption, post, tags the clothing brands they are wearing, and continuously checking for Likes as a form of validation. It was so easy to be stuck in that moment.

From a business point of view, I totally understand the importance of social media in this time and age where everyone’s attention span is like a fish. But it was getting on my nerves on a personal level that I had to remove myself from it a few months back. It’s very easy for me to drop something cold feet, so I didn’t have any withdrawals. I was disgusted by what I see.

After I deleted Instagram, Facebook and Twitter from my phone, I switched my focus to other things in life and online. I was so tired of prying on other people’s faces, their friend’s faces, what they eat, feeling jealous of their travels, their OOTDs and their cheesy captions for so many hours in a day. My days have become so calming and freeing since.

Instagram has become such a different experience compared to Flickr. We are so thirsty for attention with photos taken with our camera phones. We are so thirsty for people to see what we wear or how we look. We are so thirsty for people to see what we are doing through a quick less than a second scroll. Instagram has killed all sense of privacy.

Oh, but big ups to those who makes the effort to upload photos from their real cameras to Instagram and making it look legit inspiring though.

It is such a strange and scary feeling that I feel the lost of the mystery and realness in photography where people actually stare at one for at least a minute. There’s no thought process behind these pictures on Instagram especially the obvious no-shame sponsored posts. Ok maybe that is all there is, or I am just looking at the wrong places. Or I’m just old lol.

Don’t get me started on this copycat Instagram Stories feature.

Knowing me, I’m just having a moment. I’ll be back Instagram. Relax.