The Camera-Friendly Generation – Josh Journal
Each time I see kids excitedly get their pictures taken, I can’t help but wonder how camera-friendly this generation is.
I remember when I was growing up. Once a cameraman (they were few photographers and more of cameramen) stepped in front of a child, the child begins to cry hysterically.
Look back at your childhood days, how many of your friends had at least one picture of them crying? I know people whose every picture from ten months to two years involved them crying.
It was like we were all scared of the cameramen and their apparatus.
The fact that all of these pictures, unlike today, were all in hard copy is a sign of something else.
Because the “camera film” was limited, each picture taken on the film had a value. The cameraman had to wait until you stopped crying. When it was clear that you would not stop crying and they are running out of time, the picture had to be taken.
Children of these days have no such fear. They are born camera-friendly. They come out of the womb with a thousand fire poses for the camera. Dare I say, they are preloaded with picture poses.
It is like all the pictures their pregnant mothers took were them rehearsing for their own picture.
Maybe it’s because when our mothers were pregnant, they were discouraged from taking pictures. It is like our superstitious and fearful past ensured we were not born camera-friendly.
Thank God we are not making the same mistakes anymore.
When last did you see a teenager say they are camera shy? Which toddler do you see running away once it’s picture time?
If they see you with a phone, they’ll strike a pose and be the one asking you to snap them. How times have changed.
My only concern with the camera-friendly generation is that they don’t know when to turn the camera off.
They’ll keep posing for the camera while they commit crimes. Implicating themselves with a smile.
I remember when during sports competitions, when a fan of the losing team is caught on camera, even after recognizing themselves, they remain sad.
Not anymore. The guy whose team is getting trounced will be looking morose. That is until he sees himself on the mega screen. In that instant, he starts to jump and smile.
As much as I love the camera-friendly generation, they make the job of the media crew impossible.
Check out when they see themselves on the screen in church too. That is when the boys will remember to lick their lips. And the girls will start looking for their “angles” too.
In the meantime, the police love the camera-friendly generation. They have made investigations easier.
Once you arrest a suspect, go through his camera roll. If your evidence is not there, go to his status on Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram. Somewhere, somehow, he will implicate himself.
Back in the day, they said you can’t live life while taping it. You know you are the star of the show when someone’s got to tape you. The paparazzi had a big job following you.
These days, everyone is their own paparazzi. You live life with one bottle in one hand and your camera phone in the other.
Whatever you say you did, if you don’t have the selfie-style videos to back it up, then it’s not true.
They used to say if a tree falls in the forest, and no one heard it, did it really fall? Now we say if a tree falls in the forest, and no one has the video, did it really fall?
Whatever generation you fall into, the camera has come to stay. Enjoy its pleasures, but don’t set yourself up for pains.
Remember to enjoy every moment. If you missed recording it, someone else will. If no one did, then everyone will remember it. And at the end of it all, people make memories unforgettable. Not the camera with which it was recorded.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. @IJOSWIL
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