A few months ago, I thought it would be a good idea to camp on the Olympic Peninsula in the rain forest during the rainy season. Somehow we got a sunny day and a friend of mine and I were out hiking up a trail from a beautiful beach. We ran into a couple wearing nice clothes hauling a really fancy kitchen table and chairs down toward the beach. “Instagrammers,” my friend said. I didn’t think too much on it at the time.
However, recently there has been a movement in the zeitgeist to expose how social media is changing tourism and getting the perfect photo is changing tiny towns. For example, Paige Arizona population 8,000 has exploded with 4 million tourists per year all coming to see the Antelope Slot Canyon that lies on a reservation there. I have had this picture of Antelope Canyon on my bedroom wall for a few years:
I even considered adding it to my list of adventures because it is pretty damn stunning. However, when I drove by on the way to the Grand Canyon a couple of years back, I did some looking and found out that Antelope Canyon was tour guide only and cost about $100 per person to file through this slot canyon like a giant theme park line with no ride at the end. This wasn’t exactly the serene experience I had envisioned so I passed. Apparently, it has gotten even more bonkers. This week I read this post and watched the included video showing the truth about taking these idyllic photos.
The guides throw sand to recreate famous shots and corral people around like cowboys tending the herd. One tourist trying to take VIP photos without the VIP upgrade was even calf roped around his selfie stick and hog tied to the ground (ok I made that part up).
Reality or Virtual Reality?
Within the same day of reading about Antelope Canyon, I read this hilarious and insightful post by FIFighter about how tourists travel many miles and hike up to the Gates of Heaven in Bali to take photos such as this one:
However, upon arriving, many discover that there is not actually a reflecting pool up there, just a regular stone floor and a guy who you can pay to cleverly position a small piece of reflecting glass at the perfect angle next to your i-phone lens to take sneaky photos. Hahaha, this made me laugh out loud. One ingenious dude messing around with some glass unwittingly started a whole tourism boom to this place.
Does it take away from the Gates of Heaven? Perhaps reality is never what is photographed and reality can be more gritty and satisfying. Even the famed Pyramids of the Giza Plateau are always photographed from one side to make it look like they are way out in the desert but the reality is that you can take the subway from downtown Cairo most of the way to the pyramids or take a bus for about $2. The experience, however, blew my mind. Standing in the burial chamber of the great pyramid next to the coffin of the Pharaoh was an experience much more powerful than this crappy pre-smartphone photo of it suggests:
There is after all something cool about amazing smartphone cameras being in everyone’s hands. The free apps and filters empower people to unleash creativity and make art even if it is not entirely reality.
My Instagram Laughter Turns To Terror
After reading these stories I went about my life for a couple of days and then went out for a trail run this morning. I was jogging along when I saw a couple walking in the distance. As I got closer, he was standing with a really baller camera and she took off running for about 50 paces wearing a really cute athletic spandex runner get up. Then she stopped and started walking back. I ran by and made my way out to RedRocks and back. I even crossed paths with a rattle snake which was kind of a thrill. On my return, the couple was at that same spot just finishing up and I ran past them while they were walking back toward the parking lot.
This is when I realized that this isn’t funny so much as it is kind of terrifying. It was a beautiful day for a run with the coolness of a recent thunderstorm still in the air. However, instead of actually running, and enjoying it, this couple pretended to run and posted it. Somewhere, others read that post about how they should all get out and run more while staring at a really cute and suspiciously non-sweaty photo of this girl running a beautiful red rock landscape. Similarly, I thought of that couple out in the Washington rain forest lugging the table and chairs down to the beach. They probably put out a pair of wine glasses on that table and took an awe shucks cute photo of living the dream. Maybe the post was about how everyone should do the picnic version of glamping? I don’t know I am kind of shotgun spraying here with my creative license. However what I do know is that they spent hours hauling furniture around the woods rather than enjoying the woods.
Empathy and Authenticity on Social Media
Inauthenticity on social media is nothing new and I am not simply whining about that. Rather I am looking at something much more empathetically. Henry David Thoreau lamented during the American Renaissance that “Men Have Become the Tools of Their Tools.” I’m sure if he wrote that today he would have been much more gender neutral about it but you get the point. Wouldn’t we all be happier if the social media record of life was a bi-product of living that life as opposed to the primary goal? A couple could have made some real memories on the beach and another could have actually gotten a really great run in.
So these are the questions that have me postponing my planned post about investing today and instead asking even more questions. Questions that I am sincerely interested in hearing your feedback on (especially anyone else who blogs). I have been resisting joining Instagram, was hesitant to join the blogosphere in the first place, and currently have no ads or income streams of any kind on this site. I started it to be part of a community and hopefully help people. I am not saying this to try to take some illusion of a high road but rather to ask if I am just naive? I am after all blogging and the irony is not lost on me. I just created a facebook page for this site and occasionally tweet.
I try to be authentic but what do we owe the people that read what we put out? What do we owe ourselves? Is it ok to build a brand or would we all be better off if the “brand” was just a byproduct of living the life? There is a pretty awesome sci-fi series on Netflix right now called Black Mirror that asks questions like: What happens when we all become influencers? What happens when your digital life usurps your traditional life and becomes more real and important? Does social media serve us or is it simply addictive and slowly damaging our humanity with dopamine rewards? There’s a great scene in one of the episodes where a guy is sick of how everyone gets victimized on reality TV and so he threatens to kill himself live on the show in protest. He then gets so many likes from the stunt that he is given his own show where he threatens to kill himself every week and then lists off some sponsors.
I’d love to hear your feedback? In the mean time I will be out in the middle of nowhere Wyoming this next week doing something pretty unique and slightly nerdy from my list of adventures. If I get the time to write, I’ll share this adventure from outside the maze. If I don’t get the time, get ready next week for that investment post I’ve been sitting on haha. Seriously though, I don’t care if you want to let off some steam or give me a big virtual hug. I would love to hear your perspective on this in the comments below.
5 comments
What a great, well written article! You hit it exactly spot on – it feels like many people are spending way too much time documenting a staged “life” for others, rather than experiences living reality for themselves. Smoke and mirrors.
sometimes those mirrors are literal as well as metaphorical haha
Mrs. 39 Months and I have often talked about the effect that Instagram and “influencers” have had- as well as the negative influence of social media like facebook. All you ever see are folks having fun in other places, eating great food, or having great experiences. Nobody ever puts in pictures of them when they are sick, stuck at an airport, or having a miserable time at work. The result is everyone thinks they aren’t “keeping up with the joneses” or that everyone has a better life than they do – leading to depression.
I try and stay off social media, other than the blogs I read – and I take those with a grain of salt.
Good points Mr 39 months. You have inspired me to do a post sometime about when I am sick, stuck doing something horrible, or generally lazy just to show balance 🙂 Also, reading stuff online to get ideas and be inspired makes sense to me. Going online to make one’s life look unattainably great sounds unhealthy and pointless to all involved
When I was little I had a treasure box, which was actually a cheap plastic jewellery box filled with bits of shiny rock and feathers and dried flowers and random beads. I used to love opening up that box and looking through all the beautiful treasures inside. My Insta account is like my treasure box, a place where I keep things that are beautiful and inspirational to me. I like to share things as I like seeing things other folk find to be treasures to. To be fair it’s mostly pictures of vegetables people grow or how they got better at certain yoga poses. I think it pays to be careful who you follow.