A pet peeve

I've spent the last month and a half in Chiang Mai and something has really started to irritate me.

Since deleting Instagram, it feels even more prevalent that everywhere I look I notice people are creating these fake versions of their life to post online. It's just constant photo taking and it disappoints me that they're so engulfed in doing it that they aren't living in the moment.

I've seen two friends order a range of trendy food from a menu, take photos of it and then leave without actually eating it. I mean, completely ignoring the fact that the food was wasted, what are they trying to achieve here? Being able to say "oh look at the food I just ate in this trendy café"? It feels really shallow.

I was recently eating lunch in a restaurant and saw a little child being forced onto a songthaew before being made to pose for photos. It was clear that this child wanted nothing to do with it but the 4 photographers around him had other ideas. And now 2 year olds are becoming "Instagram influencers". Their childhood is being taken away and sold, with their parents making from it. I can only imagine how messed up that generation is going to be.

Meanwhile, fellow patrons were rearranging their table to get better lighting for their salads and smoothies.

Elon Musk on The Joe Rogan Experience:

One of the issues with social media is people look like they have a much better life than they really do. People are posting pictures of when they were really happy, they're modifying those pictures to be better-looking. Even if they're not modifying those pictures, they're selecting the pictures for the best lighting, the best angle.