The Lady Guide to Modern Manners: 23 August
Dear Thomas,
I’m just back from holiday. Why do people have to take so many photos? Why have I got to be careful not to get in the way while some so-and-so gets the perfect shot of his family? Why do I have to grin and bear it when perfect strangers ask me to take their picture?
Barbara Rowe, Eastleigh
Dear Barbara,
It sounds as if you need a rest after your holiday. Are you just a weeny bit overheated? All the same, we’ve heard quite a bit recently about all this snapping away.
We’re losing the art of living in the moment. All we’re thinking about is getting a photo. Technology enables us to be reckless and undisciplined, either with a smartphone or digital camera. No more worries about running out of film or paying for development.
The other day I was picnicking at Glyndebourne in a howling gale. A man came by and took a picture of our party, just like that – no attempt to conceal what he was doing. I waved graciously, as if a celebrity or at least royalty.
I am wondering if incidents of this kind are an overspill of the happy-snapping mentality. Not just on holiday, but all the time, as if there are paparazzi wherever you go. You attend a party; before it’s over, ghastly ‘pics’ of one are all over Facebook.
As long as I can remember, there have been groans about tourists not looking but clicking. Malicious types said that however much the trippers pored over the results back home, they’d never be able to work out where they’d been. At least nowadays cameras tend to be small – fewer of those massive black projectiles conspicuously on display round the neck of the selfimportant amateur photographer.
With a more restrained, thoughtful approach, taking pictures is a way of living more powerfully in the moment, of looking more carefully. Besides, it’s only human to want to have a record of your life, to be able to prove to your friends and even yourself that you actually stood before the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
So I don’t condemn the practice, but I agree that we take too many photos. Be careful about privacy if publishing them in any form. Be selective. Not blurry, over-lit and hideous, please.
It doesn’t bother me if strangers ask me to take their picture in public places. If you really don’t want to, you could say sweetly that you’ve got a congenitally shaky hand.
Nor am I outraged if I have to wait while someone takes a photo – if they’re suitably gracious, apologetic, quick about it and it’s not too crowded and obviously the wrong moment. A hint of self-importance and I forge straight into the shot.
Please send your questions to Thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
True, the majority of people use Twitter, TripAdvisor and the like responsibly. But a pernicious minority does not. Is the reluctance of the rich, powerful websites to exercise any kind of editorial control rooted in that initial idealism of the internet?
The other factor is money: you make money on the internet through volume of traffic. The more hits, the more advertising. So where is the motivation to restrain contributors?
The tide is inevitably turning. For the sake of their own credibility as sources of reliable information, websites that want to be taken seriously are going to have to start behaving as all publishers have done through the ages. They are going to have to edit.
I’m just back from holiday. Why do people have to take so many photos? Why have I got to be careful not to get in the way while some so-and-so gets the perfect shot of his family? Why do I have to grin and bear it when perfect strangers ask me to take their picture?
Barbara Rowe, Eastleigh
Dear Barbara,
It sounds as if you need a rest after your holiday. Are you just a weeny bit overheated? All the same, we’ve heard quite a bit recently about all this snapping away.
We’re losing the art of living in the moment. All we’re thinking about is getting a photo. Technology enables us to be reckless and undisciplined, either with a smartphone or digital camera. No more worries about running out of film or paying for development.
The other day I was picnicking at Glyndebourne in a howling gale. A man came by and took a picture of our party, just like that – no attempt to conceal what he was doing. I waved graciously, as if a celebrity or at least royalty.
I am wondering if incidents of this kind are an overspill of the happy-snapping mentality. Not just on holiday, but all the time, as if there are paparazzi wherever you go. You attend a party; before it’s over, ghastly ‘pics’ of one are all over Facebook.
As long as I can remember, there have been groans about tourists not looking but clicking. Malicious types said that however much the trippers pored over the results back home, they’d never be able to work out where they’d been. At least nowadays cameras tend to be small – fewer of those massive black projectiles conspicuously on display round the neck of the selfimportant amateur photographer.
With a more restrained, thoughtful approach, taking pictures is a way of living more powerfully in the moment, of looking more carefully. Besides, it’s only human to want to have a record of your life, to be able to prove to your friends and even yourself that you actually stood before the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
So I don’t condemn the practice, but I agree that we take too many photos. Be careful about privacy if publishing them in any form. Be selective. Not blurry, over-lit and hideous, please.
It doesn’t bother me if strangers ask me to take their picture in public places. If you really don’t want to, you could say sweetly that you’ve got a congenitally shaky hand.
Nor am I outraged if I have to wait while someone takes a photo – if they’re suitably gracious, apologetic, quick about it and it’s not too crowded and obviously the wrong moment. A hint of self-importance and I forge straight into the shot.
Please send your questions to Thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
WHAT TO DO… ABOUT INTERNET ABUSE
Apologies if you feel that you’ve heard enough on this subject. But an important aspect is yet to be explored. Who now remembers the early days of the internet – the naive, as it has turned out, idealism that said: give the great unheard, so-called ‘ordinary’ people a voice and see a new golden era of democratic wonderfulness?True, the majority of people use Twitter, TripAdvisor and the like responsibly. But a pernicious minority does not. Is the reluctance of the rich, powerful websites to exercise any kind of editorial control rooted in that initial idealism of the internet?
The other factor is money: you make money on the internet through volume of traffic. The more hits, the more advertising. So where is the motivation to restrain contributors?
The tide is inevitably turning. For the sake of their own credibility as sources of reliable information, websites that want to be taken seriously are going to have to start behaving as all publishers have done through the ages. They are going to have to edit.