Band 6+: More and more people nowadays visit well-known places to take photographs of themselves, without looking at the place. Why do you think this is happening ? Is it a positive or a negative trend ? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

Increasingly technologically advanced modes of communication have drastically changed how people experience life. Nowadays people are more preoccupied with documenting themselves experiencing places than they are with living the experiences. A growing obsession with their digital personas stemming from a twisted perception of people’s of how people value themselves and their experiences.

As a matter of fact, people nowadays are more familiar with seeing themselves through the lens of a camera than they are seeing their real self reflected in a mirror. People have seized to see themselves as human being experiencing life who grow and learn with every experience. They now evaluate their experiences through the eyes of those who they engage online after they post photographs of themselves at new places. Instead of Kim Kardashian for example appreciating the experience of going to the Maldives with her mother and sisters and seeing this as a bonding experience; she only sees the engagement rates and number of likes on the post. Her digital persona showing off pictures of her and her family in the Maldives and earning the public envy and approval via the extent of engagement means significantly more than how she felt there.

Digital personas that people create, polish , and market through online photographs can be good thing but mostly not. Digital personas whose experiences only count when they are being recorded don’t usually experience life like normal people but rather they have a skewed understanding of their own reality. A video blogger, Nikokado Avokado, almost died because he made himself eat inhumane amounts of food to satisfy his audience and make money online. He no longer ate to live but lived to eat and be filmed eating. Conversely, some video bloggers used their online platforms to save lives. Clarissa who participated in a show ( My 600-pound life) used photographs and her online persona to document her weight loss journey and inspire others to start their one.

In conclusion, I think this growing mania that is revolving around digital personas that do not represent or reflect real humanity should be halted. People need to take a step back and reassess where they are headed and where are they taking the rest of humanity.