Photos will be posted, the unforgettable moments. But do you really?
The goal in a beautiful world
A mermaid sits on her rock and looks pensive on the water. I shot a picture of this famous sculpture in Copenhagen. Quiet and very romantic looks. But I have stood up for this photo a quarter of an hour patiently until every Tourist exactly this subject (time, time taken without themselves as a Selfie in the foreground). Very unromantic, but it was worth the Wait.
The Instagram App is the gateway to a beautiful world, on the mass of such photos are posted. In the morning U-Bahn stop for commuters open to the dispersal, before a day’s work begins in operation, to dream a bit away. And then images such as, for example, under the Hashtag #live authentic, but not authentically appear. So many beautiful moments, picturesque sunrises or Sunsets – all are staged. Of semi-professional Instagrammers specifically for the platform. Images that do so, as they were based on “the most beautiful Moment”. Aesthetics of advertising instead of a holiday photo. Interchangeable instead of individually.
Youtube, Facebok, Instagram – every social media has its center of gravity. In the case of Instagram, it comes to beautiful photos. Well-staged Wow-images. Great sun light, the lights in the orange colors of the mountains, facades or faces. Yellow-blue color contrasts to speak to the viewer. Blue water on the front, a glowing yellow sun in the back. And – as crown of the staging – a Person who looks at all relaxed. The picture with a Hashtag on Instagram posted a part of a flood of images that are photographed according to similar criteria.
“Oh linger, you’re so beautiful!”
This Hold, Immortalize, Banish doesn’t work, know people for thousands of years. Also in the Bible there is the quasi-Instagram-Moment: The light fits, it shines bright, to climb the mountain is to be managed – and Jesus is transfigured before the eyes of his Disciples””. His face and his robe lights white, and the deceased prophets, Moses and Elijah come to Jesus and talk with him. As it is described in the Bible. An unforgettable Moment. The Disciples want to build, to remind huts. So for all the time people see: Here, any particular place must have taken place, at which time a special Moment. So, in a sense, the #live authentic picture on Insta. But Jesus rejects it. He asks his Disciples: “Tell no one”.
Because it is clear: The Moment you can not hold the image. The special of the moment, the magic, lies. Therefore, many of the images we see on social media from the holidays of other people, for us to Consider is not impressive. Rather banal. Beautiful, as in the South, the sun is shining, the beach looks really like… like the beach. And these mountains, Yes, really high. But overall… forget it, unforgettable images. Because we know that Even after the most uplifting Moment, it is also very earthly. On the beautiful beach, it occurs in a jellyfish, and the mountains in the feces of a goat. Or Vice-versa. The moment lingers, and that is a good thing. Because then life is to the end of it, writes Goethe in Faust:
“I’m going to say at the moments:
Linger on! You’re so beautiful!
You may beat me in shackles,
Then I will gladly perish!“
That’s why I’m not on Instagram-moments that I rinsed the phone, even so particularly envious. Really authentic pictures of people I don’t know, the show that you are well. I like that better. And the really beautiful moments are not in anyway photographed.
Find out more:
https://netzpolitik.org/2019/instagram-und-die-banalitaet-der-perfekten-inszenierung/
About The Author:
Björn Raddatz was in 1970 as a pastor’s kid born and studied in Mainz and Bonn, and theology. Now, he works as an Internet editor at a TV station.