It’s the digital age and there’s no escaping it. There’s something about posting online that is undeniably attractive. It’s something that everyone can do, whether that be through an Instagram reel or a Snapchat private story, but has the compulsion to share gotten too much? Have I started to live my life through the camera lens rather than from behind it? These are questions which I find myself regularly giving thought to and, after weeks of contemplation, I decided to delve deeper to see if others felt the same way.
The other day, I was in Caffe Nero. I ordered my oat latte and raspberry croissant and sat down at a small table by the window. My laptop was open, ready for action, and my copy of Paradise Lost was slanted at an angle, resting on my keyboard. Once I’d put my coffee and pastry down it all just looked so perfect. Before I knew it, I’d whipped out my phone, opened camera, and taken a quick snap, then another from slightly higher up (I had to get the best angle, naturally). Finally, I sat down and began my work. I later found these photos in my camera roll; they made me smile and I sent one to my Mum. She replied with the classic thumbs up and smiley face emoji, probably bored of the coffee pictures she’d been on the receiving end of over the past few months but too polite to say so.
This sequence of events has become a sort of habit without me even noticing. It’s not just me though, my friends do it too! We all like to share our experiences of exquisite latte art and baked goodies, coupled with hints of the English student aesthetic; an open copy of The Riverside Chaucer or a furiously annotated poem are often features of our coffee-related images, for example.
What I now want to ask, however, is whether there is any point to this? Why is this need to romanticise my life, and particularly my student life, so prevalent? A simple answer would consider the link between the rise of social media and this compulsion to take photos. Having said this, it’s very rarely that I actually post these ‘romanticisations’ (yes, I know this isn’t a real word) online. Other than one or two shares via WhatsApp, and usually just with my Mum, these photos reside mainly in my camera roll. What this tells me, and what I’m proposing to you now, is that we have entered a new phase of the digital age. In this, we are compelled to construct a ‘perfect’ life through photos in a way designed not only deludes others, but also to deludes ourselves.
Initially, I was horrified by this realisation. The fact that I couldn’t trust my own photos, because they themselves were not authentic representations of my life, scared me. I wanted to test my thesis out before getting too consumed by these thoughts so I decided to talk to someone else my own age, let’s call this person Ella.
Whilst Ella largely agreed with me, she also had an interesting take on what I call this ‘new phase’ of the digital age. She highlighted that photography is a skill, like writing or drawing, and a way of capturing happy moments or memories. When one takes time to set up for a photograph, or simply sees an opportunity for an aesthetic picture to be taken, it is just another way in which we have come to appreciate the beauty in the world around us. Further to this, Ella noticed the way I tended to take pictures of things to do with my study-life, and that maybe this was my way of finding joy in something which perhaps lacks the excitement of other activities.
I was quite taken by Ella’s optimistic outlook and decided this was a much better way to look at things. Rather than beat myself up for becoming another mindless player in the snap-and-share world, I have come to appreciate the way it helps me see the beauty in the little things. Latte art is still art and why shouldn’t I capture this, just as one would photograph an image on a wall, or a statue in a museum?
So maybe I’m not living my life through a lens after all. Maybe I’m just trying to remember the good in life and find things that will bring a smile to my face when I randomly start scrolling through my camera roll. Romanticising my life through the camera helps me to have a more positive outlook, so please don’t think I’m weird when the coffee arrives and the first thing I do is reach for my phone; I promise it’s not for Instagram!
