Life through the camera lens. Photo by: Mark JP

Photo by: Matthew Pearce

If a person who didn't know you scrolled through your would they get a feel of who you really are?

  is communication.  But is it genuine communication?   Do the pictures we post resemble our everyday lives?

Screenshot from Instagram with personal permission from Andrew Menzies

Each month 200 million people use

all over the world.

Photo by: Jason Bachman

There are 1.6 BILLION likes every single day on

.

That’s likes per second. Photo by: Denis Derisevic

“But first, let me take a selfie.” -#selfie, The Chainsmokers

Photo by: Dave Davity

"In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me.’”

– James Franco

 But is this "me" a real version of "me"?

Photo by: Alex Torres

 Before you hang out

with your friends,

make sure you take a

selfie of your perfect hair, makeup and

outfit.

We live in a society of online personal documentation.

Photo by: Ly Gonzalez

"A texting conversation might fall short of communicating how you are feeling, but a selfie

might make everything clear in an instant.” – James Franco

Photo by: Kevin Dooley

is a complex network of communities.  Using hashtags these communities come together

and are represented by a plethora of photographs.

Photo by: Theo La

Photo by: Steven Depolo

Photo by: Debbie Tingzon

Wait! Don't eat your

delicious cheesecake yet! Make sure you

take a picture of it and put it on

. Dessert is served,

let's spend 5 minutes framing that cheesecake

perfectly!

15 likes for my cheesecake, who cares

what it tastes like!

Starbucks is the second most popular brand on .

Why take a picture of your Venti Vanilla Bean Frappuccino with extra whip topped with chocolate chips when you can enjoy your

drink with the person sitting across from you?

Photo by: Ahmad Hashim

 Beauty gurus and fashion icons have thousands of followers. When everyone can take a picture of an outfit, everyone can

become a fashion designer.

  is inclusive. can support your career.

Photo by: Slipp D Thompson

The

Pet Community.

Photo by: Raquel Cristina Nicola

is the modern day photo album.   Why have 3 baby photo albums when you can do it all digitally

AND let the world know how adorable your 1 year old is? 

Grandma wants to see baby Theodore? Just open !

Photo by: Ministerio de Saude

has changed the way we come to know celebrities.

We can now see

behind the scenes of our favourite

television show or get up and close

with James Franco or Aaron

Paul through their

accounts.  

Photo by: Lauren Friedman

We have the ability to photograph

anything and everything.

 The reality is anything and

everything may not actually be that

important.

 The reality is that we let our

accounts define ourselves when

truthfully, barely

represents who we are or what we

feel.   Photo by: Ray Snaps

"Just because the picture looks artsy doesn’t mean you are. You are part of a fast growing legion of people that have been duped into believing they are

visionaries, auteurs, even. What would your day have been without a picture of those blueberries? Would you have felt a little less connected to the earth and, ultimately, yourself ? But no, you are popular and people like to feel earthy and

spontaneous by living vicariously through you and your blueberry-picking adventure."

- Katherine Markovich

Photo by: Kate Elliot

Screenshot of “Look Up” public YouTube Video

"Are we starting to over-share our personal lives with a bunch of strangers? Are we sharing a little too much, when our dinner becomes

the subject of our photo shoot? And are these so-called personal moments no longer real, but only fabrications, or what we want

others to see?” – Kat Kazeminy

Photo by: Brian Boucheron

Stop living photograph to

photograph and start living moment to moment.

 You might not remember those 10 minutes it took you to frame and filter this photograph, but you will remember the way the

wet sand feels beneath your feet.

Photo by: Slipp D Thompson

Photo by: Adriana Ceechi

•  "A Poem That Will Inspire You to Put Down Your Smartphone." Andrea Romano. Mashable.com. 2014. http://mashable.com/2014/05/05/look-up-poem/

•  ”An Open Letter to People Who Take Pictures of Food With Instagram." Katherine Markovich. McSweeney's.com. 2012. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-people-who-take-pictures-of-food-with-instagram

•  "Drew Nipper." Andrew Menzies. Instagram.  http://instagram.com/drew_nipper

•  "Instagram: are we over-sharing?" Kat Kazeminy.  ProjectQuinn.com. 2013. http://projectquinn.com/instagram/

•  "Instagram Statistics." Nitrogram. 2014.  http://nitrogr.am/instagram-statistics/

•  "The Meanings of the Selfie." James Franco. The New York Times. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/arts/the-meanings-of-the-selfie.html?_r=0

* All images taken from Flickr under the Creative Commons License. All photographers are given credit on photographs.

Sources

Photo by: Jason Howie