I’ve always enjoyed taking photos, but much of the enjoyment has come from having other people see and appreciate them. FB & Instagram reduced time between tak

I’ve always enjoyed taking photos, but much of the enjoyment has come from having other people see and appreciate them. FB & Instagram reduced time between taking a photo and having people see it, and there have been times where I posted particular photos because I knew they’d get more upvotes, not because they were photos I particularly treasured. Though I blame FB & Instagram for a lot, I don’t entirely blame them for my change in behaviour. A decade and a half prior, Flickr had the same basic dynamic. People posted photos with tags, others upvoted them. A feed displayed popular posts. The difference is with the device. Looking at a photo that’s physically smaller than a real-life Polaroid isn’t a massively pleasurable experience, so to compensate the photo needs to go further with its content — closer crops etc. I also end up seeing more imagery, because each viewing is sort of throwaway, than I did using Flickr. I don’t blame IG for that either, even though it clearly benefits them.