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  1. John Green's recent video on
  2. [Vlogbrothers](https://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers) got me thinking a
  3. lot about why I take photos and the impact that social media has had
  4. on my journey in photography.
  5. <youtube src="8gdJiNqP35k" />
  6. I first got into photography when I was in forth grade. I was obsessed
  7. with taking photos of anything from my toys to the breathtaking
  8. scenery of state parks. Most of the photos that I took were distorted
  9. gibberish: random fragments of trees and stuff lying around in my back
  10. yard. Back then photo quality did not matter to me, the enthralling
  11. thing was that I was preserving, capturing, and digitizing something
  12. real and breathtaking. Photography was a tool, allowing me to archive
  13. and remember the past: a way of stamping reality. John Green in his
  14. videos said "I sometimes feel like something isn't really real unless
  15. I've documented it, as if my memories and even my life will just slip
  16. past like the clouds through last night's sky".
  17. I lost interest in photography shortly after I started middle school.
  18. The only photography that I did do was for social media. Apps like
  19. Snapchat and Instagram demand a constant stream of photos to bombard
  20. your friends with. This is how I slowly learned that photography is a
  21. "cropping of reality". I frequently found myself searching for that
  22. right moment to take a photo and turn it into a Snapchat story. This
  23. is not a huge issue; it is okay to share your experiences with people
  24. you care about. However, we need to recognize that we present a
  25. polished version of ourselves on social media.
  26. Despite acknowledging the vast distance between photography on social
  27. media and reality, it is hard for our minds to quantify the stark
  28. differences between these worlds. I take issue with people who do
  29. anniversary posts where they share senior ball or vacation pictures
  30. with a short caption. These anniversary posts aim to artificially
  31. inflate someones appearance on social media when in reality their
  32. lives are quite normal. In response to the negative aspects of social
  33. media, there is a growing trend to ditch social media altogether.
  34. Although "comparison is the thief of joy", quitting social media is
  35. not the only solution. Only following close friends, limiting app
  36. usage, and only using messaging centered apps are all great ways to
  37. reap the benefits of social media while avoiding most of the negative
  38. consequences.
  39. Enough of my social media tangent, lets get back to photography. I
  40. recently got back into photography as an artistic hobby rather than a
  41. means of archiving events or creating content for social media. As a
  42. programmer, it is exhausting to write code for forty hours at work and
  43. then program even more as a hobby -- this is a perfect recipe for
  44. burnout. I find that photography is a great hobby since it is
  45. intellectually simulating, yet not super rigorous and tiring.
  46. Photography encourages you to explore new places and meet new people.
  47. In photography you are always learning, growing, and improving. I
  48. really enjoy watching movies; however, I don't believe that it's a
  49. great hobby since there is no personal growth.
  50. I am obsessed with photography for the same reason I love programming:
  51. there is a constant creative drive to make and share something new
  52. with the world. In Mr. Robot Elliot said "In a world where everything
  53. is a virtual copy of itself, where there's nothing but image, where
  54. publicist have publicists and celebrity is bleakly industrial, it's
  55. inevitable that 'image' starts to collapse on itself...". You have
  56. probably heard that there is no more original content being created
  57. anymore, everything is simply an image of an image of an image. With
  58. the sheer quantity of content being created, it is close to impossible
  59. to be the first person to do something. When I start working on a
  60. programming project or go to a park to take some pictures, I am
  61. frequently asked, "why are you doing that when others have already
  62. done it". It is now impossible to be the first person to create a
  63. social media app or photograph a waterfall; but, that does not make it
  64. pointless to go out and create. Art is something that needs to be
  65. constantly shaped, customized, tweaked and perfected. I am confident
  66. that the best picture of a waterfall has not been taken yet. We are
  67. still a long way away from creating the perfect social media app.
  68. Despite everything being an image of an image, learning from other
  69. will help us grow as creators and develop our own unique style.
  70. ![Pixley Falls](media/pixleyFalls.jpg)