Absolutely love the idea of in-person Instagram. I’ve been off for 3+ years now and enjoy sending unremarkable yet meaningful photos to people I actually want to show. Your idea of making it a community event is super appealing—also reminiscent of family game night or going to the movies with friends. Sure, maybe not the most “efficient” use of time, but so much more valuable than tossing another photo into the void. Thanks for the article, man !
Andrew, thanks so much for reading and for this comment. I love that approach. It's much more meaningful to share your experiences with those close to you than to send them out to the Internet for all to see in search of some vague, undefined sense of approval or status. I'm also not an Instagram (or social media) user and life is much better without it. Appreciate you reading!
...not novel by any means but we print an annual photo calendar for family and friends and it is well received...fun to curate also...sometimes print photo books for eachother too on topics (like our dogs)...feels gross to say this but a smart table for your photo idea could be cool...everyone gather around and make a collage...
I love that idea. Such a great gift to receive for family and friends. I had legitimately never even heard of a smart table before googling it after you mentioned it. Crazy that it exists. Very interesting idea with novel uses, as you mentioned, but might be a little too high tech for me. I'm on a quest to have less things that need plugging in in my life, not more. Though I do enjoy anything that makes people gather round. As always, appreciate you reading and dropping in here pal.
It’s funny Jack, but this backfired on me just a couple days ago. I had this nice flat of blueberries and I wanted to make some blueberry jalapeño jam. But I didn’t want to look up a recipe online, I just wanted to see if I could do it from memory. What did I get? A screwed up batch of jam! I’d forgotten a couple key things. So yesterday, I looked up the recipe and made a killer batch of jam. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your “rule,” just suggesting that it’s not absolute. If I could, I’d add a picture of my jam-making. I sent some pics to my mom and brother.
Ha! That's a great story, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing it.
You raise a good point. I think the caveat to the rule would be something like: "figure things out on your own until you have truly exhausted your brain and need some assistance." The issue I have with phones isn't surrounding the use of them as tools, but around the over dependence of them. We pick them up to quickly as an easy fix. We shouldn't let our phones replace what our brains/bodies are capable of but we should use them as the helpful tools they are when the situation calls for it.
The jam-making initiative sounds great. I wonder if, after the first batch turned out poorly, you will now have the proper recipe cemented in your mind!
I really do agree with your deeper point, by the way. And it was cemented to me the other day when I bought a used car, a convertible no less, that didn’t have any way to hook up my phone to it. I could just drive around with the sound of the wind and the smells of the nearby fields for entertainment. It’s fantastic.
Jack when I was a kid, when you took pictures you could have them developed into pictures or slides. Slides were like the film negative and were bound by a cardboard edge, and you would put them into a slide projector and project them onto a white canvas screen about 5x5 feet.
When family and friends would go on a vacation to say Hawaii or the Grand Canyon, the parents would have their pictures developed into slides and we’d have a neighborhood bbq and at the end there’d be a big “slide show” where we’d all sit in a big semi circle inside or outside after dark and watch the slide show while those that went would narrate their experience.
It was as you describe - a way for us to see places we hadn’t been, a way to see it through the eyes of those who were there, with laughter, and questions, and descriptions of everything else about the experience that wasn’t in the picture we were looking at.
The slide show is a lost ritual that society would be well served to bring back. It fostered community and connection.
As usual, your essay today was terrific and thought provoking.
James, thank you so much for sharing this with me. That is a beautiful recollection from your childhood and a much better depiction of "In person Instagram" than I could muster in my essay.
Though I would be silly to say I wish I was born in a different time (we are very lucky to be born in the era and countries we are from), there are aspects of our lives today that I wish we could rewind to how they were done in the past. The joy of pictures is to recount our experiences, to tell tales to others, to laugh and cry, to draw out stories from loved ones you had not yet heard, to have memories that you thought left you remembered again.
Instagram is a farse that delivers no sense of lasting positive emotion. And it couldn't be further away from fostering community and connection.
Thank you, James, for your readership and your interesting and thoughtful comments, as always.
Jack, these are super cool! In-Person Instagram is a real banger of an idea to try.
Also, I remember when I used to rely on Google Maps for everything and labelled myself as "geographically challenged." But one time, I went on a trip just walking and actually observing my surroundings. It was fun and I remembered the place quite well. So to your point, maybe I should stop consulting Google all the time.
Linart, thank you so much! Appreciate you reading and I'm glad you enjoyed the ideas in here.
I strongly believe that when we rely on Google Maps too much, we naturally pay less attention to our surroundings because we know we can fall back to our phone. My Dad talks about how much sharper he was at remembering routes before the time of smartphones and how now, on road trips, he relies on his phone more and pays less attention as a result.
If you experiment with using maps less, let me know how it goes. I'm doing the same and finding it lots of fun while getting sharper along the way (I think!).
Makes so much sense, I agree! My latest experience with it is from your idea of going on an adventure every Sunday. I’ve been walking around our city every week for the past 2 months, and it’s one of my most favorite things to do now. I always find new sights and I enjoy watching people from my hometown. Just wanted to let you know the impact of your not-so-little suggestion!
I always enjoy the way you think about preserving your own direct relationship to the world and empowering human capacity over artificial assistance and devices. I was just employing the exact mapping strategy you describe on our cycling trip. There were times when the smart phone was super useful but 98% of the time it stayed in my pocket.
Rick, thank you for reading and for this comment. Your words always have a way of helping me understand what I'm trying to do through my actions, and this is a perfect example: "preserving your own direct relationship to the world and empowering human capacity over artificial assistance and devices." That is my aim and now I have a one sentence description to carry with me and share with others. So thank you for that gift.
It's a great feeling when you can figure something out on your own without pulling out the smart phone. It makes me happy to hear you had the chance to deploy that practice on a trip with your son (which sounded incredible, by the way
I did the “no calculator” thing for an accounting class in university. Worked really well. Hard to keep up with since I’m spending a lot of time in spreadsheets these days though.
Colin, good to hear from you man. Thanks for dropping in. No calculator for an entire accounting class is impressive. Did you manage the final exam without a calculator or did you bring one as a back up?
It's a good practice but, as you point out, not scalable past relatively basic operations. If you managed to do your current job with no calculator you'd be up for a Guinness world record of some kind!
Absolutely love the idea of in-person Instagram. I’ve been off for 3+ years now and enjoy sending unremarkable yet meaningful photos to people I actually want to show. Your idea of making it a community event is super appealing—also reminiscent of family game night or going to the movies with friends. Sure, maybe not the most “efficient” use of time, but so much more valuable than tossing another photo into the void. Thanks for the article, man !
Andrew, thanks so much for reading and for this comment. I love that approach. It's much more meaningful to share your experiences with those close to you than to send them out to the Internet for all to see in search of some vague, undefined sense of approval or status. I'm also not an Instagram (or social media) user and life is much better without it. Appreciate you reading!
...not novel by any means but we print an annual photo calendar for family and friends and it is well received...fun to curate also...sometimes print photo books for eachother too on topics (like our dogs)...feels gross to say this but a smart table for your photo idea could be cool...everyone gather around and make a collage...
I love that idea. Such a great gift to receive for family and friends. I had legitimately never even heard of a smart table before googling it after you mentioned it. Crazy that it exists. Very interesting idea with novel uses, as you mentioned, but might be a little too high tech for me. I'm on a quest to have less things that need plugging in in my life, not more. Though I do enjoy anything that makes people gather round. As always, appreciate you reading and dropping in here pal.
It’s funny Jack, but this backfired on me just a couple days ago. I had this nice flat of blueberries and I wanted to make some blueberry jalapeño jam. But I didn’t want to look up a recipe online, I just wanted to see if I could do it from memory. What did I get? A screwed up batch of jam! I’d forgotten a couple key things. So yesterday, I looked up the recipe and made a killer batch of jam. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your “rule,” just suggesting that it’s not absolute. If I could, I’d add a picture of my jam-making. I sent some pics to my mom and brother.
Ha! That's a great story, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing it.
You raise a good point. I think the caveat to the rule would be something like: "figure things out on your own until you have truly exhausted your brain and need some assistance." The issue I have with phones isn't surrounding the use of them as tools, but around the over dependence of them. We pick them up to quickly as an easy fix. We shouldn't let our phones replace what our brains/bodies are capable of but we should use them as the helpful tools they are when the situation calls for it.
The jam-making initiative sounds great. I wonder if, after the first batch turned out poorly, you will now have the proper recipe cemented in your mind!
I really do agree with your deeper point, by the way. And it was cemented to me the other day when I bought a used car, a convertible no less, that didn’t have any way to hook up my phone to it. I could just drive around with the sound of the wind and the smells of the nearby fields for entertainment. It’s fantastic.
Jack when I was a kid, when you took pictures you could have them developed into pictures or slides. Slides were like the film negative and were bound by a cardboard edge, and you would put them into a slide projector and project them onto a white canvas screen about 5x5 feet.
When family and friends would go on a vacation to say Hawaii or the Grand Canyon, the parents would have their pictures developed into slides and we’d have a neighborhood bbq and at the end there’d be a big “slide show” where we’d all sit in a big semi circle inside or outside after dark and watch the slide show while those that went would narrate their experience.
It was as you describe - a way for us to see places we hadn’t been, a way to see it through the eyes of those who were there, with laughter, and questions, and descriptions of everything else about the experience that wasn’t in the picture we were looking at.
The slide show is a lost ritual that society would be well served to bring back. It fostered community and connection.
As usual, your essay today was terrific and thought provoking.
James, thank you so much for sharing this with me. That is a beautiful recollection from your childhood and a much better depiction of "In person Instagram" than I could muster in my essay.
Though I would be silly to say I wish I was born in a different time (we are very lucky to be born in the era and countries we are from), there are aspects of our lives today that I wish we could rewind to how they were done in the past. The joy of pictures is to recount our experiences, to tell tales to others, to laugh and cry, to draw out stories from loved ones you had not yet heard, to have memories that you thought left you remembered again.
Instagram is a farse that delivers no sense of lasting positive emotion. And it couldn't be further away from fostering community and connection.
Thank you, James, for your readership and your interesting and thoughtful comments, as always.
Jack, these are super cool! In-Person Instagram is a real banger of an idea to try.
Also, I remember when I used to rely on Google Maps for everything and labelled myself as "geographically challenged." But one time, I went on a trip just walking and actually observing my surroundings. It was fun and I remembered the place quite well. So to your point, maybe I should stop consulting Google all the time.
Linart, thank you so much! Appreciate you reading and I'm glad you enjoyed the ideas in here.
I strongly believe that when we rely on Google Maps too much, we naturally pay less attention to our surroundings because we know we can fall back to our phone. My Dad talks about how much sharper he was at remembering routes before the time of smartphones and how now, on road trips, he relies on his phone more and pays less attention as a result.
If you experiment with using maps less, let me know how it goes. I'm doing the same and finding it lots of fun while getting sharper along the way (I think!).
Makes so much sense, I agree! My latest experience with it is from your idea of going on an adventure every Sunday. I’ve been walking around our city every week for the past 2 months, and it’s one of my most favorite things to do now. I always find new sights and I enjoy watching people from my hometown. Just wanted to let you know the impact of your not-so-little suggestion!
I love this message - but the highlight is those chilli flakes which look absolutely 🔥
Thanks so much, Zan. Appreciate you reading and commenting :)
The chilli flakes were great. Added them as a garnish to some home made pad thai I made the other week and it was delicious.
Ooooh that sounds mouthwatering!
I always enjoy the way you think about preserving your own direct relationship to the world and empowering human capacity over artificial assistance and devices. I was just employing the exact mapping strategy you describe on our cycling trip. There were times when the smart phone was super useful but 98% of the time it stayed in my pocket.
Rick, thank you for reading and for this comment. Your words always have a way of helping me understand what I'm trying to do through my actions, and this is a perfect example: "preserving your own direct relationship to the world and empowering human capacity over artificial assistance and devices." That is my aim and now I have a one sentence description to carry with me and share with others. So thank you for that gift.
It's a great feeling when you can figure something out on your own without pulling out the smart phone. It makes me happy to hear you had the chance to deploy that practice on a trip with your son (which sounded incredible, by the way
I did the “no calculator” thing for an accounting class in university. Worked really well. Hard to keep up with since I’m spending a lot of time in spreadsheets these days though.
Colin, good to hear from you man. Thanks for dropping in. No calculator for an entire accounting class is impressive. Did you manage the final exam without a calculator or did you bring one as a back up?
It's a good practice but, as you point out, not scalable past relatively basic operations. If you managed to do your current job with no calculator you'd be up for a Guinness world record of some kind!
these are all great recommendations that really resonate with me. now i want to try them all! appreciate you sharing my friend
Thanks for reading, Arman. I appreciate you pal. I hope they can make an improvement in your life, however small it may be.