Nobody asked me about how I feel when I don’t get my pictures back, but I’m going to tell you anyways.
In our millennial generation, capturing a moment has never been easier. Almost everyone has a phone with a camera; just pull it out and smile wide. However, this convenience has created a problem. Having the tools necessary to take pictures so easily comes with the responsibility of sending these pictures to the people in them. This is where my problem lies. You see, as good as you are at taking photos you, are all really horrible at getting them back to me. And I’m tired of it.
Imagine you have a big event, perhaps the 2017 homecoming dance at PVHS. You spend hours getting ready to look picture perfect. You take countless photos with your homecoming group and during the dance. The next morning, you are deeply saddened that homecoming is over, but then you remember all the wonderful pictures you took. “This is great,” you think to yourself, “Even though the dance is over I can still relive the night vicariously through the pictures!” However, when you go to your photo album, you come to the realization that none of the pictures were taken with your phone. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Now I know what you might be thinking, “why not just text the people that you took pictures with to send you the photos?” Great question! There are multiple factors that play into this method’s ineffectiveness. For one thing, you’re not going to remember every single person you took a picture with – the only people that know this are the people that have the pictures on their phones. “But what about those people that you DO remember?” Individually texting every single person, “Hey can you send me the pictures we took last night,” takes a lot of time and effort that, frankly, shouldn’t be necessary. But for the sake of my final point, let’s say that you go through the trouble of texting multiple people to send you the pictures. Although some will be generous enough to text them to you, many will become lazy and just send back “I’ll send them later” or “I’m busy right now”. Most likely you’ll want to look at these photos to see which ones are good enough to post on social media. But if you don’t get these pictures until a week later, then it’s not socially acceptable to post it because it’s not timely. It’s old news. No one cares about what you did a week ago, social media is made to learn what people are doing in the now. This selfish behavior of not sending pictures to their proper owners will not, and should not, stand any longer.
Here’s the thing: I really enjoy taking pictures. They are the best way to capture memories and keep them preserved for the years to come. But how am I supposed to enjoy the photos if I never get them back? I can’t control whether or not you send them to me. Therefore, I’ve come up with the solution to this first-world problem. Every night, take a second to look through your camera roll and see if you’ve taken pictures with/of someone else. If you have, just send it to them. It’s not that hard, and that person will be extremely happy and grateful that you did so. So please, get off your lazy butts and send people their rightfully-deserved pictures.
If you or a loved one have gone through these same troubles, please share this article with the person that is causing you the anguish. By getting to the root of the problem, we can stop it together.
