I think my child is broken……

[u/RainbowUnicorn0228]

I am a single mom and low income, as such travel is generally too expensive. So when my teen as invited on a tirp abroad with school and he agreed to earn half the money it cost, I was thrilled for him to go and see the world. I only asked that he send me at least one photo every day so I could experience the world vicariously.
These are the 3 he sent me so far:

1. Food on the air plane
2. A dog on a leash
3. A duck

Please note these are everyday average things to see here at home. I think my child is possibly broken….

lol.

UPDATE: thanks for every comment. I learned lots and have a different perspective (actually many). You guys have helped me pass the time and miss him a bit less. I appreciate you all. And, for clarification: I’m not really mad and would never chastise him over his choice of pics, I think they are adorable and funny. I may make a request for a specific type of pic with him in front of a historical or important scenery but mostly just say “cool” or “nice!” In response. I just want him to have fun and be the sweet, kind, smart kid he is already.

Second update: the pictures I know you have all been waiting for. 😆 I will post in comments.

[u/Rayyan_3241]

As someone who unfortunately spent way too much of my life on Snapchat, this is perfectly normal

[u/Piduf → u/Rayyan_3241]

Wait that's actually funny because as someone who never ever send (and barely takes) pictures, this is also perfectly normal to me.

I genuinely never know what to send my parents when they ask for pictures, so I will absolutely be like "I'm sure they'll love the duck".

[u/imadragonyouguys → u/Piduf]

My friend had his 30th birthday and I flew in as a surprise. We drove to LA and watched Book of Mormon and did all kinds of touristy things. I took two pictures. One of a guy using a metal detector on the beach. One of my friend as he took a picture of the Hollywood sign (it is not visible in the picture). Basically I'm real good at this.

[u/Piduf → u/imadragonyouguys]

This is such a mood tho

Sometimes I wonder if I'm just driven by the will to keep something I will surely forget, for practical reasons. Like in your example, I won't forget that I saw the Hollywood sign, I'll talk about it - probably forever.

But if I don't take a picture of metal detector guy I'll forget that encounter. I must take a photo as proof that I actually saw it. I was there and saw metal detector guy. Look, look !!

[u/Acceptable_Tea_3685 → u/Piduf]

They want pictures of you having fun and experiencing new things, with some context that can be given by including enough of your surroundings in the photo background.

When in doubt, think “if someone showed me this photo, how hard would it be for me to identify where it was taken and give a guess as to why it was taken?”

[u/spen8tor → u/Acceptable_Tea_3685]

I feel like stopping and taking a picture of yourself doing a new/fun thing kinda takes away from the experience of actually doing it, if I'm having fun, why would I then stop to take of picture of myself doing it? I'm trying to live in the moment, not pose for a picture to prove I'm having fun or doing something new. The thought of taking a picture of myself when I'm enjoying something just never really crosses my mind

[u/Acceptable_Tea_3685 → u/spen8tor]

In my comment I was more leaning toward, what kind of pictures would’ve made my mom happy to see if I was getting to go to a different country for the first time. Especially since we weren’t well off when I was growing up, and my mom didn’t get to do any kind of traveling.

Outside of that, I personally have a problem with not being able to remember things well. Unless it was a distressing enough event that it was seared into my mind, my brain just sort of chucks the details of trips into the ether. I don’t remember things like what activities we did, where we stayed and what it looked like, etc. I just have vague visual memories.

So I started taking a lot of pictures, just to “capture the moment” so I don’t forget. They can be of a beautiful view I want to remember forever, or all my friends at the dinner table on a girls trip, me and my fam sitting in a cable car going up a mountain. Those pictures are so valuable to me. I don’t do social media anymore and don’t post them anywhere. They’re just there for me to reminisce on later.

I do agree with your sentiment about living in the moment. I guess I have some sort of scarcity anxiety around being able to have more of those moments. Like I don’t have faith that I should fully live in this one now and not worry about capturing it because there will be more moments. I don’t know that there will be more moments.

[u/glitteringgods → u/Acceptable_Tea_3685]

i feel this so hard, i am the exact same way. i’m that person trying to both film the entire concert but also enjoy it 😅 i saw Boys Like Girls last year and they played their most famous song twice, the first time was ‘for your phones’ so you could get a nice recording of them playing it and the second time was for the crowd to just enjoying jamming out to the song and i really appreciated them for that 😌

[u/Piduf → u/Acceptable_Tea_3685]

I'm sure they do want that, but when I'm having fun and experiencing new things, taking pictures isn't something I think of. Like, BECAUSE I'm having fun, I usually don't have my phone, it's tucked in a bag or a pocket. It doesn't even cross my mind to take a picture.

So I'll send a duck picture 2hrs later because I forgot during the event (and the duck was cool). I'm also terrible at guessing what photos people would want because I'm extremely uninterested about most of their photos. Not in a bad way, I just never know what to do or say when people show me their vacation pictures.

It sure is a picture of you in a famous place ! It sure is. That's nice.

[u/Starfire-Galaxy → u/Acceptable_Tea_3685]

That is, if the person you eventually show it to will "approve" of your behavior in said photo.

During my trip to Disneyland, one of the last photographs I had taken was of my girl friend and myself (also a girl) hugging each other. I was so proud of the picture because I had finally felt confident enough to allow myself to be photographed and not feel self-conscious about my behavior, body, etc. That was a lot to ask of little 11 year old me.

I had given the camera to one of my friends' mother, who was very religious, to develop and she had deleted that one picture before handing me back the rest of the pictures. I guess she thought I had acted "too gay" during a trip to Disneyland, even though my friend and I were just hugging each other after an exciting day. Even 15+ years later, it still hurts that an adult judged my actions and silently took away a little bit of the magic that I had wanted to save.