Photography has always been a mirror of its time, but the digital age has transformed it from a tool of documentation into a weapon of self-delusion. The camera, once used to capture reality, now serves primarily to manufacture it. What we photograph, how we photograph it, and why we photograph it reveals a society that has lost touch with authentic experience, commodified human connection, and replaced genuine accomplishment with the performance of success.
That’s a lot of words to say “Things were better when I was young”.
It’s a clickbait article, showing the same distress at younger generations that every generation before has complained about
I don’t agree - to me, it feels the article is not about generations but about society. For example, take the fact that right now aesthetics are shaped by algorithms, and anyone from any generation needs to tailor their photography to what the algorithm likes. This is not a “gen z bad, millennial good” complaint - this is cross-generation and the complaint here is “we’re all letting corporations dictate our tastes like never before”.
The other points such as FOMO, Monetization of human relationships (influencers), can be similarly linked to social interactions being primarily corporate controlled.
I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss those issues as “things young people like”, nor to put the blame on them and say “these issues are caused by how young people interact socially”.
FOMO is a genuine cause for anxiety and it’s a direct consequence of a modern society where social media exists - not something that Millenials, Gen Z or Gen Alpha like or are responsible for.
“noooo, you are doing it wrong! you have to do it my way! WHY AREN’T YOU DOING IT MY WAY?!”
I don’t know, I agree with these points and I see them occurring in all generations in my life. You don’t?
It does mention specific trends and their implications for people’s relationship with photography and their own experiences though, which I thought was interesting. It’s not just grumbling about the kids; it’s observing how particular ways of taking photos can have unwanted consequences.