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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Colgate chapter.

We live in a society heavily documented and excessively filtered. We are privy to a world run by Instagram. Live, breathe, and await impatiently for that coveted like-to-minute ratio.

Ten minutes have passed – only six likes? Delete while you’re behind. 30 likes and five comments in 15 minutes – this one’s a keeper. I mean you bought that cute new romp from Revolve and Cartier knockoffs for a reason. Pics, pics and more pix. Nothing gains quite the following like a brightly lit photo and just the right ‘nashville’ filter.

Oftentimes we joke, “pics or didn’t happen,” as in the memory is not quite enough unless it comes to photographic fruition. The reality is photographs have historically been used to document time, events, and memories. A mindful aid that reminisces on good times passed.

It seems, however, this mentality like all great things in our day and age – has received a facelift. Millennials are plagued by ‘finstagrams,’ ‘Snapchat,’ and the quest for the all-time high Instagram like total. No longer is a photograph a distant and occasional memory. It has become necessary real time footage of, at times, our most mundane activities.

Must we remember every brunch plate we eat on Sunday mornings? And perhaps that sunset does look eerily like the last.

But make no mistake, even as we ask these logical questions, the phenomenon is widespread and gaining. You’re talking to a GoPro obsessed amateur, herself. But one has to wonder the next time that invisible shutter takes a snap.   

Is this pic for the memory or for the like?

Morgan is a junior at Colgate University where she majors in Creative Writing and minors in Film & Media Studies.  On campus, Morgan is a New Member Educator for greek life's Kappa Kappa Gamma.  When she's not under stacks of English literature in the library, you can find her watching old reruns of Laguna Beach with her co-correspondent leader, Caroline Parsons.  An avid listener of country music, interior design fanatic, and diehard Bachelor spectator.  Check out the blogs and articles produced by Morgan, Caroline, and their diverse (just as weird) team of writers!