I went to the Zoo recently and I couldn’t believe how many people immediately whip out their phones to film the animals in the exhibit.

Like, if looking at images of animals on your phone was anywhere near as enjoyable as seeing them in person, why even pay to come to the fucking zoo!?

The animal you are looking at is already existing within a dead facsimile of its actual environment! It’s already like looking at an image!

Do people really go back and look at these images and videos and feel the same feeling as when they’re looking a marmoset of exotic bird right in the eyes a few feet away from them?

It feels like we’ve all become trained to whip out our phones and start filming the moment anything interesting starts happening. The way everyone prefers this mediated experience to just being in reality experiencing art or living things or a concert or whatever just makes me feel kind of bleak. To me this is a great example of what is meant when we talk about Alienation.

Anyone else agree or am I being a grumpy geriatric shaking my fist at the kids on my lawn?

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I hate weddings because they lack this. Everything is so fucking sterile and artificial and perfectly posed. I get it for the major wedding photos, but why aren't there photos of the kids doing dumb shit, the couple sharing an intimate moment away from the crowds, or some other goofy thing happening? I find almost no value in the photos they give me where I'm standing in some crowd for 20 minutes while the photographer finds the perfect angle and lighting lol. It's usually the photos where I'm making some goofy face chowing down food or some other shit, but people rarely document that unless they're young, and even then they'll only share it with you if you're close lol

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        I never see them whenever the couple sends me the album. It's usually all the professionally staged shots, or maybe when people are dancing and whatnot, but I don't know, it still seems very sterile and usually includes the 'important' people and not randoms