Take A Picture....

When I was an adolescent not only did I use these words myself, but I also had them cast upon me as well.

I have even heard the phrase uttered from my own children’s lips.

In the past, when an adolescent was met with unwelcome and scornful stares while engaging in borderline bad behavior, the object of the stare would snottily turn to the person issuing the judgmental gaze and say Why don’t you take a picture--it lasts longer.

Because there was a time when attention paid to bad behavior was unwanted and cameras were left in the closet merely for the blowing out of candles.

But now—not so much.

Taking pictures is no longer difficult to do-- even second graders routinely carry around cell phones with camera features. The world is such that the entire point of adolescence (and early adulthood) is to photographically document borderline bad behavior at all times and then post it on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram.

We want people to take pictures of us so that we are thrust into an eternal stare. And if there is no one to take the picture for us, we take it ourselves—in the form of a “selfie.”

 I have to wonder if that aforementioned phrase is still as biting or as relevant as it had been in the past.

 It seems outdated.

Because we have gone from a culture of Stop looking at me to Keep looking at me. In today’s world one would not say Take a picture—it lasts longer as much as Take out your camera and let me strike my pose.