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I went to see sunrise (and spend the day at) Angkor Wat in December, and have a rather different perspective to the OP. Sure - there were lots of people crowde

I went to see sunrise (and spend the day at) Angkor Wat in December, and have a rather different perspective to the OP. Sure - there were lots of people crowded around a similar spot at sunrise. It's Angkor Wat, and seeing sunrise there is the kind of thing that most people in attendance are going to do once in their lives. It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. People are going to want to take photographs. Did the presence of other people there massively ruin the day for me? No. When sunrise is over, you have at least six hours to wander round the temples completely uninterrupted at your leisure. If you so choose, you can come back in the afternoon when there are far fewer people around. Do I get an awesome amount of pleasure from looking back at my photos of Angkor and sharing them with friends and family? Yes. Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No. It's really impossible to hold the details of an experience like wandering round Angkor in your head for years to come. I'm not going to remember the detail on a specific bas-relief, or the view I got from the top of a specific temple in years to come. Having photographs of these things really helps in that regard and enables me to 'revisit' any time I want. This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor? Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.

ozmbie 11y ago
I missed the sunrise when I was in Cambodia, so I went to Angkor Wat during sunset instead. It was amazing. The place was almost empty. I walked around for over an hour while the remaining tourists left and then sat at the entrance and shared a beer with my driver. It was such a great experience. I don't think I took any photos either..
- FroshKiller 11y ago
  Off topic, but can you unpack "shared a beer with my driver" for me a little? Like, the two of you split a beer? Did you have the beer and offer some to your driver, or did your driver have the beer and offer some to you?
  - Cyph0n 11y ago
    What difference does it make? Two people shared a beer, that's all.
  - Mtinie 11y ago
    "Share a beer" is, as I've always used it, a shorthand expression for "shared time, conversation, and company with someone, while drinking beers". It's just a simple expression that takes the place of a bunch of concurrent activities.
    - stinkytaco 11y ago
      It's funny, because I've got a few pictures that sum up exactly what you said about this single expression. I don't have many, but I greatly value the pictures I've taken that retell the story of a certain event to me.
  - derrickdirge 11y ago
    In this context it doesn't usually imply that they literally both drank from a single beer. Just that they each drank a beer in one another's company.
  - err4nt 11y ago
    Read as: “shared a beer break” Just like sharing a coffee doesn't literally mean drinking from a communal cup, but means taking a coffee break.
dominotw 11y ago
> It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don't have medical condition, I've spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I've spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby's first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives. I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I've stored them in an edited/modified form that would please me. I am not even sure if 'me according to me' is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I've woven into somewhat consistent story about myself. People used to view material goods as good life now it all about 'experiences' . I just don't understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.
- wehadfun 11y ago
  Same boat 99% of it is a blur at best. I think what makes experiences memorable is not only the picture but the people you travel with. Assuming they remain in your life years after the "experience" you can continue to reference and talk about that time you went to ... and did ... These people with or without the picture will do a much better job of making an experience live on.
  - J-dawg 11y ago
    Same boat here as well. I'm quite sceptical of people who claim to have vivid memories almost like videos in their mind. I often think they're just better than us at replaying the narrative they've constructed and filling in the gaps with imagination. I read somewhere that eyewitness accounts, when tested, are often wildly inaccurate, and very prone to manipulation by asking leading questions e.g. "when did you see the suspect driving the red car?"
- ams6110 11y ago
  I'm sort of the same way. And oddly, I do remember other random, unimportant moments with vivid clarity even 20+ years later. I guess for some reason my subconscious thinks those are significant but I can't rationally figure out why.
derrickdirge 11y ago
Yeah, it really seems like the author is making an argument against cameras in general. Tourists have been taking pictures for a long time. Instagram didn't invent trying to impress people with photos of your travels.
- osweiller 11y ago
  "Instagram didn't invent trying to impress people with photos of your travels." This is absolutely true. Before Instagram and similar sites, you'd invite friends over and then force a slideshow on them. This was widely reviled and turned into a staple of comedy. Because no one really wants to see people's travel photos. The difference with Instagram and friends is that there's this sense of reciprocity -- that if we feign interest in other people's works, they'll have legitimate interest in ours. It's the giant lie of social media, where everyone is creating but almost no one is really consuming -- we all think we're tricking the system and cultivating our own consumers.
  - bartread 11y ago
    > It's the giant lie of social media, where everyone is creating but almost no one is really consuming -- we all think we're tricking the system and cultivating our own consumers. Hmm. I can see what you're getting at, but I don't entirely agree. Looking at my facebook newsfeed nowadays, for example, there's an awful lot of sharing going on, but it's not original content - there's very little creation going on. I'm slowly weeding this stuff out because what I really want to see is what my friends and family are saying, or posting, for themselves. I share photos on Instagram as much for my own benefit as anyone else's. That being said, I have found myself thinking things that essentially boil down to, "This will get a lot of likes," and I'm not sure how I feel about it. You might be a little cynical with the comment about feigning interest though. I'm sure it's true of some people but I know for myself, if I click 'Like' (and especially if I make a comment), it's because I genuinely do like something.
    - kristianc 11y ago
      > Looking at my facebook newsfeed nowadays, for example, there's an awful lot of sharing going on, but it's not original content - there's very little creation going on. I'm slowly weeding this stuff out because what I really want to see is what my friends and family are saying, or posting, for themselves. This is reportedly something that Facebook has noticed themselves. > Overall sharing has remained "strong," according to Facebook. However, people have been less willing to post updates about their lives as their lists of friends grow, the people said. Instead, Facebook’s 1.6 billion users are posting more news and information from other websites. As Facebook ages, users may have more than a decade’s worth of acquaintances added as friends. People may not always feel comfortable checking into a local bar or sharing an anecdote from their lives, knowing these updates may not be relevant to all their connections. [1] [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/facebook-said-to-face-decline-in-people-posting-personal-content http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/facebook-s...
briancaw2 11y ago
> Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself. When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly. That sort of distortion of an environment can be difficult to ignore. It sounds like the author had a similar experience, and if that happens to you, you might find that the thing that grabs your attention most is how everyone's constant photography can degrade an experience.
- morley 11y ago
  The word "touristy" has been around a long time, long before Instagram came around. Singling out Instagram is just another way to make the age-old complaints of tourism slightly less stale.
  - briancaw2 11y ago
    Trying to paint a critique of Instagram's effects on tourism as a lame re-hash of an old idea seems a bit off. Sure, it might be the same complaint, but if the severity is 100x worse it holds more weight. And if Instagram is the main vehicle for this behavior, then it is a fair target of criticism. For another example of the effects of smartphone-enabled-social-media, check out some youtube crowd shots from concerts before 2000 and ones from today. Obvious is emergence of masses of people looking through phones and holding up phones; a bit less obvious and a bit more worrisome is that folks seem generally less excited to be there.
- lisper 11y ago
  > When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly You write "Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel" as if these were connected to each other, but they're not. They are in two different countries. And photography is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so it's very unlikely that you are recalling this incident correctly.
gotofritz 11y ago
> This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor? I think Medium is ruining my enjoyment of the internet
bartread 11y ago
> This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor? Yes: this. It all seems so reasonable until you step away a little and have a think about it. Tourists have been behaving this way since tourism, and especially since photography, became a thing. It is not Instagram's fault. I am moderately annoyed with myself for falling into the trap of clicking on the link to, and then actually reading, this article.
- nommm-nommm 11y ago
  I have noticed a dramatic change in tourist behavior in the last 4 years or so. I literary have been hit in the head by people welding selfie sticks too engrossed in getting pictures of themselves to pay attention to others in a crowded area. What's worse is the people who are repeatedly asked by staff to refrain from doing something and just blatantly disregard instructions. I never saw this happen before the age of smartphones and cheap DSLR cameras.
  - bartread 11y ago
    I'll give you that - the selfie stick phenomenon is completely ridiculous. Actually the entire selfie thing leaves me cold, but perhaps I'm just getting old.
tim333 11y ago
Also the Angkor Wat temple area is approximately 30 miles by 30 miles. You only get that sort of crowd where the tour busses go for the official sunrise viewing spot. I had my own motor scooter for transport and it was easy to find ruins where you were on your own - no tourists, locals or attendants.
Domenic_S 11y ago
I think you missed the author's point. The point to me was mainly the lies that photos tell. OP posted on IG representing that he was (presumably) calmly relaxing with some coffee while watching the sunrise, when in fact he was part of a herd trying to snap a photo like this. The secondary point is that constructing that lie ends up removing people from the moment. I think this is the weaker point as people have been taking pictures for a long time... but it is true that the population that does this has increased manyfold, since everyone with a smart phone can participate.
MichaelGG 11y ago
>Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No. What's the point then? I used to take such pictures, and even though I'm an OK shot, my pictures of famous places or even interesting "random" landscapes aren't gonna be nearly as good as ones I can find online. If I'm in it, then at least there's some unique story being told. Otherwise I'm just making a crap documentary.
- harlanlewis 11y ago
  My photos aren't the best either, but they're mine. The sensory recall from my own perspective is far more powerful than anything I get from professional photos of the same place because they cue memories of more than just the captured photons. They remind me of the weather that caused that light, those people, the food, that trip. It might be a crap documentary, but it's thoroughly mine. I'm not usually attracted to the places that attract a big crowd taking the same picture together, but when I do the worst thing I can say is that it feels a little silly.
- emodendroket 11y ago
  Well, it was your experience and not someone else's.

ozmbie 11y ago

I missed the sunrise when I was in Cambodia, so I went to Angkor Wat during sunset instead. It was amazing. The place was almost empty. I walked around for over an hour while the remaining tourists left and then sat at the entrance and shared a beer with my driver. It was such a great experience. I don't think I took any photos either..

FroshKiller 11y ago
Off topic, but can you unpack "shared a beer with my driver" for me a little? Like, the two of you split a beer? Did you have the beer and offer some to your driver, or did your driver have the beer and offer some to you?
- Cyph0n 11y ago
  What difference does it make? Two people shared a beer, that's all.
- Mtinie 11y ago
  "Share a beer" is, as I've always used it, a shorthand expression for "shared time, conversation, and company with someone, while drinking beers". It's just a simple expression that takes the place of a bunch of concurrent activities.
  - stinkytaco 11y ago
    It's funny, because I've got a few pictures that sum up exactly what you said about this single expression. I don't have many, but I greatly value the pictures I've taken that retell the story of a certain event to me.
- derrickdirge 11y ago
  In this context it doesn't usually imply that they literally both drank from a single beer. Just that they each drank a beer in one another's company.
- err4nt 11y ago
  Read as: “shared a beer break” Just like sharing a coffee doesn't literally mean drinking from a communal cup, but means taking a coffee break.

dominotw 11y ago

> It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don't have medical condition, I've spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I've spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby's first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives. I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I've stored them in an edited/modified form that would please me. I am not even sure if 'me according to me' is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I've woven into somewhat consistent story about myself. People used to view material goods as good life now it all about 'experiences' . I just don't understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.

wehadfun 11y ago
Same boat 99% of it is a blur at best. I think what makes experiences memorable is not only the picture but the people you travel with. Assuming they remain in your life years after the "experience" you can continue to reference and talk about that time you went to ... and did ... These people with or without the picture will do a much better job of making an experience live on.
- J-dawg 11y ago
  Same boat here as well. I'm quite sceptical of people who claim to have vivid memories almost like videos in their mind. I often think they're just better than us at replaying the narrative they've constructed and filling in the gaps with imagination. I read somewhere that eyewitness accounts, when tested, are often wildly inaccurate, and very prone to manipulation by asking leading questions e.g. "when did you see the suspect driving the red car?"
ams6110 11y ago
I'm sort of the same way. And oddly, I do remember other random, unimportant moments with vivid clarity even 20+ years later. I guess for some reason my subconscious thinks those are significant but I can't rationally figure out why.

derrickdirge 11y ago

Yeah, it really seems like the author is making an argument against cameras in general. Tourists have been taking pictures for a long time. Instagram didn't invent trying to impress people with photos of your travels.

osweiller 11y ago
"Instagram didn't invent trying to impress people with photos of your travels." This is absolutely true. Before Instagram and similar sites, you'd invite friends over and then force a slideshow on them. This was widely reviled and turned into a staple of comedy. Because no one really wants to see people's travel photos. The difference with Instagram and friends is that there's this sense of reciprocity -- that if we feign interest in other people's works, they'll have legitimate interest in ours. It's the giant lie of social media, where everyone is creating but almost no one is really consuming -- we all think we're tricking the system and cultivating our own consumers.
- bartread 11y ago
  > It's the giant lie of social media, where everyone is creating but almost no one is really consuming -- we all think we're tricking the system and cultivating our own consumers. Hmm. I can see what you're getting at, but I don't entirely agree. Looking at my facebook newsfeed nowadays, for example, there's an awful lot of sharing going on, but it's not original content - there's very little creation going on. I'm slowly weeding this stuff out because what I really want to see is what my friends and family are saying, or posting, for themselves. I share photos on Instagram as much for my own benefit as anyone else's. That being said, I have found myself thinking things that essentially boil down to, "This will get a lot of likes," and I'm not sure how I feel about it. You might be a little cynical with the comment about feigning interest though. I'm sure it's true of some people but I know for myself, if I click 'Like' (and especially if I make a comment), it's because I genuinely do like something.
  - kristianc 11y ago
    > Looking at my facebook newsfeed nowadays, for example, there's an awful lot of sharing going on, but it's not original content - there's very little creation going on. I'm slowly weeding this stuff out because what I really want to see is what my friends and family are saying, or posting, for themselves. This is reportedly something that Facebook has noticed themselves. > Overall sharing has remained "strong," according to Facebook. However, people have been less willing to post updates about their lives as their lists of friends grow, the people said. Instead, Facebook’s 1.6 billion users are posting more news and information from other websites. As Facebook ages, users may have more than a decade’s worth of acquaintances added as friends. People may not always feel comfortable checking into a local bar or sharing an anecdote from their lives, knowing these updates may not be relevant to all their connections. [1] [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/facebook-said-to-face-decline-in-people-posting-personal-content http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/facebook-s...

briancaw2 11y ago

> Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself. When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly. That sort of distortion of an environment can be difficult to ignore. It sounds like the author had a similar experience, and if that happens to you, you might find that the thing that grabs your attention most is how everyone's constant photography can degrade an experience.

morley 11y ago
The word "touristy" has been around a long time, long before Instagram came around. Singling out Instagram is just another way to make the age-old complaints of tourism slightly less stale.
- briancaw2 11y ago
  Trying to paint a critique of Instagram's effects on tourism as a lame re-hash of an old idea seems a bit off. Sure, it might be the same complaint, but if the severity is 100x worse it holds more weight. And if Instagram is the main vehicle for this behavior, then it is a fair target of criticism. For another example of the effects of smartphone-enabled-social-media, check out some youtube crowd shots from concerts before 2000 and ones from today. Obvious is emergence of masses of people looking through phones and holding up phones; a bit less obvious and a bit more worrisome is that folks seem generally less excited to be there.
lisper 11y ago
> When I saw the Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel it was surrounded by a stream of ~50 people with flashbulbs constantly firing and talking loudly You write "Mona Lisa/Sistene Chapel" as if these were connected to each other, but they're not. They are in two different countries. And photography is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so it's very unlikely that you are recalling this incident correctly.

gotofritz 11y ago

bartread 11y ago

> This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn't communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor? Yes: this. It all seems so reasonable until you step away a little and have a think about it. Tourists have been behaving this way since tourism, and especially since photography, became a thing. It is not Instagram's fault. I am moderately annoyed with myself for falling into the trap of clicking on the link to, and then actually reading, this article.

nommm-nommm 11y ago
I have noticed a dramatic change in tourist behavior in the last 4 years or so. I literary have been hit in the head by people welding selfie sticks too engrossed in getting pictures of themselves to pay attention to others in a crowded area. What's worse is the people who are repeatedly asked by staff to refrain from doing something and just blatantly disregard instructions. I never saw this happen before the age of smartphones and cheap DSLR cameras.
- bartread 11y ago
  I'll give you that - the selfie stick phenomenon is completely ridiculous. Actually the entire selfie thing leaves me cold, but perhaps I'm just getting old.

tim333 11y ago

Also the Angkor Wat temple area is approximately 30 miles by 30 miles. You only get that sort of crowd where the tour busses go for the official sunrise viewing spot. I had my own motor scooter for transport and it was easy to find ruins where you were on your own - no tourists, locals or attendants.

Domenic_S 11y ago

I think you missed the author's point. The point to me was mainly the lies that photos tell. OP posted on IG representing that he was (presumably) calmly relaxing with some coffee while watching the sunrise, when in fact he was part of a herd trying to snap a photo like this. The secondary point is that constructing that lie ends up removing people from the moment. I think this is the weaker point as people have been taking pictures for a long time... but it is true that the population that does this has increased manyfold, since everyone with a smart phone can participate.

MichaelGG 11y ago

>Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No. What's the point then? I used to take such pictures, and even though I'm an OK shot, my pictures of famous places or even interesting "random" landscapes aren't gonna be nearly as good as ones I can find online. If I'm in it, then at least there's some unique story being told. Otherwise I'm just making a crap documentary.

harlanlewis 11y ago
My photos aren't the best either, but they're mine. The sensory recall from my own perspective is far more powerful than anything I get from professional photos of the same place because they cue memories of more than just the captured photons. They remind me of the weather that caused that light, those people, the food, that trip. It might be a crap documentary, but it's thoroughly mine. I'm not usually attracted to the places that attract a big crowd taking the same picture together, but when I do the worst thing I can say is that it feels a little silly.
emodendroket 11y ago
Well, it was your experience and not someone else's.