Social media companies love to tell us about how they're bringing the world together or how they let us share our moments and memories with loved ones, etc. But

Social media companies love to tell us about how they're bringing the world together or how they let us share our moments and memories with loved ones, etc. But there is something to be said about the comparison between how the generation before us shared these moments vs how we do. 'Back in the day', you would go on holiday, take a camera and a few rolls of film, snap some photos, and then return home. Perhaps a few days later you might find some time to go and get the film developed. You'd return and get your photos, ready to be shared with friends and family. You'd then set a date, you'd call your loved ones and invite them over for dinner or drinks so you could share your experiences and discuss your photos together. It was a face-to-face, real, personal experience. Contrast that with the rapid-fire creation and consumption of photos on social media today and you can see how these 'moments' have become more trivial and feel less valuable. I'm not saying one is inherently better than the other. There are pros and cons to both, but something tells me that if we're talking about "connection" between people, about authentic sharing between friends/family, the older way was better. More often than not, 'liking' photos on social media ends up being a 'quid pro quo' so that you can get a 'like' in return down the line. There have been studies that show us that social media consumption has a negative effect (especially on younger audiences) on the mental wellbeing of users. Friend counts, likes and shares end up becoming a form of gamification where people chase numbers rather than real meaningful connections. That is how we ended up in this scenario, where users flock to destinations to simply grab a photo, without ever really taking in their surroundings, just so they can keep up with the Joneses online. Don't get me wrong, I don't completely blame the tech, the biggest part of the problem is the human condition and the ways we behave - and that aspect hasn't really changed much since we used cameras with rolls of film in them to today - we're still the same, attention-seeking people we were before, but the tech today just amplifies these traits.