A Post About Performing for an Audience, Published to My Audience

Out in Montauk last week, I noticed the hotel we were staying at hired their own photographer to walk the pool area and beach shooting guests. There were so many people filming themselves heading to the beach, shooting their food, or some other maybe-Instagram-worthy-ish thing everywhere I went. It was as if I was surrounded by influencers. I know… OK boomer, but it really felt like a cultural change I hadn’t noticed on a vacation before. My wife and kids noticed the same.

I see the same most mornings walking through SoHo. I saw a woman lying on the sidewalk to take a picture of her “laying down in Soho,” and others were taking pictures of her filming this odd scene. It was out of a bizarre movie.

I complained to my family — why can’t people just live in the moment, enjoy the food and views, and not stream or capture it for social media? And then I thought….

The irony is real. I’m doing a version of the same thing writing this. A post about everyone performing for an audience, published to my own audience, under a header that literally says “Venturing in Public.” I guess I’m not exempt from the thing I’m describing.

Maybe we’ve all agreed to stop noticing how much of our lives run through an audience that isn’t even watching that closely.

Or is the best flex just not feeling the need to influence or capture anything at all?