The average person takes around 22 pictures on their phone a day. However, as more people post their weekend dumps to social media, I’ve noticed a decline in the quality of photos.
But when I have noticed higher quality photos, it’s clear those photos have a vintage film feel to them. I gather these pictures are not being taken by our daily phone cameras, so what are people using?
Welcome to the era of digital cameras.
As a generation obsessed with pictures, why are digital cameras becoming more used than our phone cameras?
To start out, the digital camera offers nostalgia to our generation and serves as a reminder of our youth in simpler times. The click of the camera followed by the abnormally bright flash often brings up memories from when we were kids playing around with old cameras. It makes me think of the times before we were involved with phones and social media, only having access to the digital camera owned by our parents — time when all I had to worry about was what games my classmates and I would play at recess and what snack we would eat when we got done with school.
The digital camera photos give off a feeling of authenticity because they come from a time when no one edited photos or posted them on social media. It can remind us of vintage photos we have seen of our parents and grandparents.
As a generation so used to their phones, it is exciting to take a break from the phone to capture moments with something different. Depending on the age and cost of the digital camera, its effect can differ.
Older digital cameras, or cheap ones like the shark camera from Walmart, capture moments in a different aesthetic compared to the more expensive, good quality cameras on our phones. These older digital cameras often have poor quality, making the photos look and feel more vintage with their blurriness and pixelation.
People are attracted to these types of photos because it makes them feel like they are in a time beside their own, when getting the perfect photo wasn’t the top priority. The photos give off the impression that you were having “too much fun” to check if your camera was in focus, and they let people know you don’t care if your photos aren’t perfect. It also signifies that you don’t need a $1,000 camera to feel satisfied with capturing the moment.
Our generation is iconic for traveling back in time to pick up past trends and make them fresh again. The digital camera is wrapped up in the Y2K era, a time for tech enthusiasm and low-rise jeans.
Usually, these kinds of trends last a short period of time, but the digital camera era does not seem to be leaving us anytime soon. With celebrities and influencers, such as Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid and Chari D’Amelio, encouraging the use of digital cameras, the trend seems to be growing more popular. On TikTok the hashtag “#digitalcamera” has 1.5 billion views..
It's astonishing to think of how photos have swarmed into our lives. Before you take your next photo, think about the digital camera aesthetic. Soon, you will be saying goodbye to your new iPhone you just bought, and hello to the old digital camera that has been collecting dust in your basement storage room.
