Musing on travel

As evident by this website, I quite like to travel. One of my absolute favorite activities is going to some mega metropolis over in Asia and enjoy being amongst cultures that I’ve an affinity for. It’s a credit to innovations in travel that I can fly to the other side of the globe and back for under a thousand dollars; similarly it’s allowed a tremendous amount of people to do that same. The world isn’t as connected as ever just via the Internet, but the democratization of air-travel has brought different cultures together, face to face.

The legions of travelers from China is well-known, and some would say infamous.

Of course, with advances usually come drawbacks as well, and the most acute in regard to mass travel is the overcrowding of famous tourist spots. For example, this Summer the Louvre museum in Paris had to shut its doors because the sheer number of guests caused security personnel to go on strike, overwhelmed beyond what they signed up for. What sort of “experience” is it really, to wait in line for hours to simply get in, then only to be led through like cattle to see for a fleeting moment the most popular item in the Louvre: the Mona Lisa? Museums are supposed to be places of airy openness; an environment created for quiet contemplation of the artworks on display. Sweating in line to take a selfie with a painting; the seems rather antithetical.

What’s the point of visiting when these famous landmarks get stripped of their original raison d'etre?

I had the same reservations at the Sensō-ji temple during this July’s trip to Japan. The place was packed with tourists, and the main walkway into the temple grounds is lined with many small shops hocking wares and food items to passersby. This is a Buddhist temple: hallowed ground for worship, associated with peace and quiet, and it’s turned into a busy commercial enterprise. About this I felt a tinge of sadness, and wondered what it would’ve been like before the advent of the airplane to visit temples like Senso-ji; we’ll never get that authenticity ever again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arrogant enough to fail to see the irony that I’m part of the problem. In my defense - for whatever it’s worth - I don’t travel for the sake of putting it up on social media, hoping to gain glory from the praise of others on how awesome my life is. The vanity-driven project of ticking off travel destinations like a checklist to be showcased on instagram is not something I subscribe to. Personally, I hate lines, so waiting for hours to get into the Louvre is definitely not my cup of tea.

I’m not here to impugn how others travel, but rather it’s a self reflection. Going forwards I shall make more informed decisions on the places I visit, to ensure that I’m not exacerbating the problems of overcrowding.

Guess I’m not traveling to Venice anytime soon…

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Good to a see a clean E28-era BMW 5-Series still on the road.

Should I return to Instagram?

I quit Instagram a few months back but lately I’ve been itching to get back in. For a hobbyist photographer like myself Instagram is a tremendous platform indeed to a connect with and draw inspiration from other photographers in the world. I really get a kick out of seeing people take amazing pictures and I use that as motivation to get off my ass. I'd thought I could live without this mechanism when I deleted the app but withdrawal symptoms are strong.  

And admittedly the sweet dopamine hit from photos of beautiful Instagram models isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

But every time I’m inclined to reactivate the account, Instagram gives fresh new reasons to deter me. In the never-ending bid to sell more advertisements, the app recently launched IGTV, allowing users to upload long-form videos up to one hour in length. For all practical purposes it’s a Youtube-like  ecosystem within Instagram; yet another feature I couldn't care less about much like the Snapchat-copying ‘Stories’. 

Whatever happened to the simple app of yesteryear where the only thing on the feed were squared photographs with filters applied? Instagram have morphed into a photo-centric version of Facebook, replete with ads and algorithms (rest in peace, chronological feed). I guess it makes sense: the founders made it out like bandits after selling Instagram for over a billion dollars so naturally Facebook is heavily incentivized to monetize the heck out of the app to recoup the investment. 

So now we’ve even got people launching a car magazine using Instagram as the main platform. The app isn’t purely about photographs anymore, and that is very sad. The more media appendages they add the more I don’t want to go back. Complexity killed the cat. 

Google preparing their annual week-long takeover of Moscone Center. 

Farewell, Instagram

While Mark Zuckerberg is being raked over the coals by Senators who don't understand the Internet (one Senator said the Facebook user agreement sucks as if he or anybody else actually reads the damn thing), I on the other hand have finally gotten rid of the last vestige of Facebook in my life: Instagram. It joins my Facebook account into the big bin of social media platforms I no longer use (rest in peace, Xanga).  

Indeed Zuckerberg's monolithic company won't profit from me any more (we are the product, not the customer), that is assuming they've kept their word and actually delete my information. Judging from Facebook's track record I'm certainly not counting on that happening. A good few years of my digital life will forever be locked in a data-farm somewhere.  

Another reason for deleting Instagram is I no longer see the point of it. On the base level Instagram is like a photo-centric Facebook, and since I've no use for a Facebook account (couldn't possibly care less what my elementary classmates are up to), keeping an Instagram account doesn't make much sense either. 

As a hobbyist photographer I used Instagram to follow other creatives for inspiration and whatnot (i.e. steal ideas) but I can easily do that elsewhere and be way more productive because I won't be bombarded with images from non-photographers I follow. 

And of course I used Instagram to do what every other red-blooded male does: to follow and thirst after Instagram models. Alas, push comes to shove we can do that without Instagram, can't we? (Shoutout to Tumblr in its early days)

Instagram have turned into a massive time-sink and not worth the value I get out of it. Posting my own photos have become more chore than fun. Having to input metadata like using the appropriate hash-tags and composing a funny caption or compelling short story to tell - for each and every photo - is tiring and not the best place to focus creative energy on; it'd be better spent on this website instead. Pictures on this website have permanence, while on Instagram it's gone and forgotten as soon as the next one is posted. 

Having done the deed and leaving me with Twitter as the sole social media platform I'm on, I feel lightweight and refreshed. More focus on doing the good work. 

#DeleteFacebook

Where have you all been? I've long deleted my Facebook account! 

I quit the platform because I felt it to be a massive time drain with no real intrinsic value. I really didn't need or want to know how an old classmate from elementary school is doing, and the majority of people on my friends list were of that ilk. For sure it was novel to get in touch after a long time at first, but that quickly wore off. The friends I truly value and converse with on a daily basis I already do so outside of Facebook. 

The fact that Facebook mines user data with potential for nefarious acts wasn't even a factor in my decision to quit. I didn't put too much mind towards cyber-security back then, contrasting to the present where every front-facing camera on my computing devices gets covered, and I two-factor authenticate the heck out of all web accounts. 

I've been reading with great humor the mess Facebook have gotten itself into recently with the news that an outside firm has collected huge amounts of user data (through then legit means) and used them to put out targeted adverts and posts to sway opinions. I'm failing to understand the outrage: isn't that how the Force works? Facebook is built upon exploiting (too strong?) its culled data to sell advertising!

Sure there's an implicit trust we give to these companies to safeguard the information, but these scales are so massive that unintended consequences are sure to materialize, nor can these companies police absolutely every single piece of ones and zeroes. As long as the spigot is open, it may not be entirely clean water that will flow through. 

Which is why people need to be cognizant about precisely what they share on these platforms, and that any data they input can potentially be used however which way by first and third parties. That's the price of entry for an otherwise "free" product. If that notion frightens you then perhaps do as I have done and pare down the number of social media accounts to bare minimum (I found it difficult to quit social media completely). 

But it isn't only social media accounts, is it? Most other online web services we use operate on the same business model. Amazon surely profits from owning the purchasing patterns of millions of shoppers. Our search history in Google's battery of applications fuels most of its revenue stream. Unlike quitting Facebook, it's really difficult to stop use of these platforms.   

I think it's futile to put complete faith in these companies to not ever do us harm (read: Equifax hack). It's up to the individual to do periodic audits on the information we have out online and adjust accordingly.