The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

The Bittersweet end to the Kodak moment

 

By Claire Hogan

The popular phrase “Kodak Moment” is being replaced with “Insta it.” A Kodak moment photo captured an irreplaceable memory, something you held close to your heart, photos of things that will you will never forget. The Insta pic, on the other hand, is more along the lines of, “OMG, we’re twinning” and “Let’s take a pic and see how many likes we get.” It takes way the importance of the photograph.
Back in the childhood days, one’s parents would give someone a disposable camera to document summer camp or a field trip. “I took a disposable camera to CYO camp in fourth grade and then took pictures and scrapbooked them,” said senior Kelly Tebb.
There was a lot of fun in taking your disposable camera to the store and then picking it up, seeing all the photos,and staring at them for hours because they evoked a sense of pride in the photographer. Now a child can take 400 photos on their parents phone, feel nothing at all and probably even forget he or she ever took them.
The demand of photos appears to going up because of social media, yet, ironically, the demand of camera appears to be going down. People take photos for immediate gratification by their friends. People take photos because they fear they cannot preserve a memory. On Instagram, it is a competition of selfies and numbers of likes.
“I don’t even understand how people take some of those selfies. Often I can’t tell if it’s meant to be ‘artsy’ or funny or completely serious,” said senior Niall Kelleher.
People are unable to go on cool hikes without taking a photo and posting it. This phenomena enforce the popular query, “if you didn’t take a picture, did you even go?”
The new trend of Polaroids is especially ironic. They were very popular when they came out in the 70s but then they became less of an occurrence. Recently, though, there has been a large boom in these unique cameras. They came in with the hipster movement. These cameras become popular just as camera companies like Kodak go bankrupt. No one wants cameras, but they want instant cameras where the prints last to about 10 years and then disappear.
Senior Kate Chandler said, “Thanks to Vine, I have a six second attention span so I need a hard copy right away! They are also super trendy.”
However, despite the ostensible death of the camera, there are those who still have actual cameras other than their phones, but they are few and far between. The phone and social media have forever changed photos.

Story continues below advertisement