Mia Muzzi is a journalism freshman and rotational opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Cameras play a persistent role in college students’ everyday lives. A hike is not truly complete without a picture at the top, birthday candles are not to be blown out until you’ve smiled at the flashing camera and vacations are not fully remembered unless you have proof of the sunsets from your balcony.
Coined as “capturing the moment,” Gen Z’s addiction to taking photos is not a new point of discussion. Thousands of photos render their way into our digital albums, but the mentality behind our endless camera roll is not as deluded as some would assume.
We simply don’t want to forget.
“Having videos of what you’ve experienced in life is super special because it lets you look back and reflect on those moments,” said Blake Manning, a communications sophomore and well-known content creator on TikTok and Instagram. “There’s a bunch of times where I also like to be in the moment, but sometimes scrolling through my camera roll and seeing a video of me and my friends from our favorite experiences, like Shabang, lets me reminisce and remember how cool that was.”
We want to remember our experiences and have a permanent version of our adventures stored neatly in a pocket. We live in fear of forgetting a memory, and these photos allow us to cherish moments for the rest of our lives.
But where is the line? At what point does capturing the moment prohibit us from living in it?
Recently, it feels like experiences are no longer just experiences. Sunset drives come burdened with questions about who will bring the camera or if the lighting will be good. We do our makeup and check our hair before driving out onto the coast, all while scrolling through Pinterest pages on the way.
This way of living was somewhat exciting for me at first. After a day of taking pictures, I’d get a rush while looking through them, excited for what I could post or who would see them.
I’d spend hours curating the “perfect” post, realigning my Instagram feed and making sure it all looked cohesive. I even created an alternative Instagram account where I could post my photos and see what they looked like beforehand so as not to regret anything later on.
But this eventually caught up to me. I felt drained. Those little pictures that first felt like my own scrapbook became artificial snippets of a life I wanted people to think I had.
My moment of realization came when I was out to dinner with some of my friends. We had checked the restaurant’s “aesthetic” ahead of time, verifying that the food looked good and the pictures would be cute. As we ordered and the food arrived, we innocently passed “the phone eats first” jokes around the table. But as I watched my friends all pull out their phones, I realized the joke wasn’t really funny anymore.
What were we trying to prove? What was once a way to preserve a memory is now being used to fabricate good times. It feels like we’re leaving it up to a single picture to define the whole experience, and it quite honestly feels like something out of a dystopian novel. Would it be too dramatic of me to say that we’ve stopped living in the moment entirely?
“I’ve definitely noticed myself caring about photo-taking more than I’d like to, and this sometimes can be just in the back of my head no matter what I’m doing,” kinesiology freshman Kate McGough said. “It can be super draining sometimes, and I’ve deleted Instagram on multiple occasions to detox. But it always is a happy surprise when I go somewhere and can fully just be more in the moment, not worried about posting pictures.”
Photos are meant to encapsulate the experience, not be the experience.
I really see this with my parents. They each keep photos from their lives around our house: pictures from their childhood, their wedding, my graduation. It’s all there. But never once did they look up an “inspiration” photo beforehand. They simply took a picture to capture a significant moment in their life, and to have a tangible reminder of that special day, no thoughts behind it.
By contrast, our generation seems to have divulged into a spiral of thoughts. We overthink how others perceive our lives, so we take photos to prove we’re having a great time, even if we might not be. And we do this all behind the mask of “capturing the moment.”
“I always want to be as present in the moment as I can,” Manning said. “I just post when I feel like I want to and try not to pressure myself to post constantly about my life. I think this mindset is important for everyone to consider, no matter what their follower count might be.”
It’s time to go back to the moments. Having dinner without a camera, celebrating a birthday without a photo shoot or going to the beach with nothing but a friend.
I’m serious: spend one week with your friends without worrying about posting something on social media. Just take in the moment without planning how it’ll affect your feed.
In doing so, we will be able to rediscover the beauty of experiences – not by how others view them but by how they make us feel. If we can detach ourselves from constant documentation, we can be fully present, creating memories that aren’t constantly filtered through a lens.
Our phones record so much of our lives, but sometimes, the very best moments are the ones that happen spontaneously, without a camera. Allowing moments like these, pure and unfiltered, to exist in your mind alone is how we can revitalize actually “living in the moment.”
Our existence can feel so limited, and it almost seems we take it for granted when the only concern is a good Instagram photo dump. I’m ready to start experiencing my life through my own eyes, making memories wholeheartedly and without distraction.