<story><title>Instagram Is Ruining Vacation</title><url>https://backchannel.com/instagram-is-ruining-vacation-701086a67440#.axm8wkawc</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dominotw</author><text>&amp;gt; It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list.&lt;p&gt;Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don&amp;#x27;t have medical condition, I&amp;#x27;ve spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I&amp;#x27;ve spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby&amp;#x27;s first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives.&lt;p&gt;I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I&amp;#x27;ve stored them in an edited&amp;#x2F;modified  form that would please me. I am not even sure if &amp;#x27;me according to me&amp;#x27; is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I&amp;#x27;ve woven into somewhat consistent story about myself.&lt;p&gt;People used to view material goods as good life now it all about &amp;#x27;experiences&amp;#x27; . I just don&amp;#x27;t understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.</text></item><item><author>kristianc</author><text>I went to see sunrise (and spend the day at) Angkor Wat in December, and have a rather different perspective to the OP.&lt;p&gt;Sure - there were lots of people crowded around a similar spot at sunrise. It&amp;#x27;s Angkor Wat, and seeing sunrise there is the kind of thing that most people in attendance are going to do once in their lives. It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. People are going to want to take photographs.&lt;p&gt;Did the presence of other people there massively ruin the day for me? No. When sunrise is over, you have at least six hours to wander round the temples completely uninterrupted at your leisure.&lt;p&gt;If you so choose, you can come back in the afternoon when there are far fewer people around. Do I get an awesome amount of pleasure from looking back at my photos of Angkor and sharing them with friends and family? Yes. Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s really impossible to hold the details of an experience like wandering round Angkor in your head for years to come. I&amp;#x27;m not going to remember the detail on a specific bas-relief, or the view I got from the top of a specific temple in years to come. Having photographs of these things really helps in that regard and enables me to &amp;#x27;revisit&amp;#x27; any time I want.&lt;p&gt;This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn&amp;#x27;t communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?&lt;p&gt;Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>erikpukinskis</author><text>&amp;gt; I just don&amp;#x27;t understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think we&amp;#x27;re expecting to wake up.&lt;p&gt;I think many of us feel totally powerless to live the lives we want to live: to get the job we want, to buy our parents a house, to be seen by our peers the way we&amp;#x27;d like to be seen. We know we&amp;#x27;re up against a wall and that to some degree we&amp;#x27;re settling for uninteresting things.&lt;p&gt;But then someone says &amp;quot;the Sistine Chapel has the most beautiful frescos in the world&amp;quot; and what we hear is &amp;quot;if you can just get your butt here, you can experience a taste of the best stuff there is&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s a chance to stop thinking about what we can&amp;#x27;t have and just think about what we are having and how great it is.&lt;p&gt;In some sense, actually experiencing the place isn&amp;#x27;t really important. In fact, it&amp;#x27;s pretty dangerous. If you paid attention you might realize that you actually don&amp;#x27;t know anything about antiquities, and you don&amp;#x27;t actually care about Michelangelo. Looking deeply at the attraction can only cheapen it.&lt;p&gt;But if you just stand there, in the spot experts say to stand, and you pay your money, and the staff do the thing they do when they get the money, then for a few minutes you can really believe that you have it good.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s self-actualization as a service.</text></comment>
<story><title>Instagram Is Ruining Vacation</title><url>https://backchannel.com/instagram-is-ruining-vacation-701086a67440#.axm8wkawc</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dominotw</author><text>&amp;gt; It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list.&lt;p&gt;Something that has been bothering me lately. I have no memory of 99% of my life. No I don&amp;#x27;t have medical condition, I&amp;#x27;ve spoken to lots of people about this, my friends who I&amp;#x27;ve spoken to have forgotten their babies first steps, their baby&amp;#x27;s first words, first date with their spouse ect which most people would rate as top moments of their lives.&lt;p&gt;I am not even sure that the stuff I do remember form my life is actually accurate or if I&amp;#x27;ve stored them in an edited&amp;#x2F;modified  form that would please me. I am not even sure if &amp;#x27;me according to me&amp;#x27; is a honest representation or if its just bunch of inaccuracies that I&amp;#x27;ve woven into somewhat consistent story about myself.&lt;p&gt;People used to view material goods as good life now it all about &amp;#x27;experiences&amp;#x27; . I just don&amp;#x27;t understand that constant demand by both society and internally to have experiences at all costs. We think that without experiences our minds will become dull and uninteresting, experiences would wake us up from our dull lives.</text></item><item><author>kristianc</author><text>I went to see sunrise (and spend the day at) Angkor Wat in December, and have a rather different perspective to the OP.&lt;p&gt;Sure - there were lots of people crowded around a similar spot at sunrise. It&amp;#x27;s Angkor Wat, and seeing sunrise there is the kind of thing that most people in attendance are going to do once in their lives. It would be in most travellers top ten things to do before you die list. People are going to want to take photographs.&lt;p&gt;Did the presence of other people there massively ruin the day for me? No. When sunrise is over, you have at least six hours to wander round the temples completely uninterrupted at your leisure.&lt;p&gt;If you so choose, you can come back in the afternoon when there are far fewer people around. Do I get an awesome amount of pleasure from looking back at my photos of Angkor and sharing them with friends and family? Yes. Do most of my photos even have me in them at all? No.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s really impossible to hold the details of an experience like wandering round Angkor in your head for years to come. I&amp;#x27;m not going to remember the detail on a specific bas-relief, or the view I got from the top of a specific temple in years to come. Having photographs of these things really helps in that regard and enables me to &amp;#x27;revisit&amp;#x27; any time I want.&lt;p&gt;This is yet another judgy, post-intellectualizing Medium piece whose purpose isn&amp;#x27;t communicating any particular point but garnering clicks and attention for the author. You really think Instagram ruined your trip to Angkor?&lt;p&gt;Did you really take the decision - faced with an absolutely awe inspiring monument at sunrise - that the best use of your time and resources was to take a judgmental photo of the people around you? Get over yourself.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wehadfun</author><text>Same boat 99% of it is a blur at best. I think what makes experiences memorable is not only the picture but the people you travel with. Assuming they remain in your life years after the &amp;quot;experience&amp;quot; you can continue to reference and talk about that time you went to ... and did ... These people with or without the picture will do a much better job of making an experience live on.</text></comment>