It seems that in this day and age, there are so many different ways to take a picture. It's not just a simple "smile!" phrase anymore, and there certainly isn't just one device made for taking pictures. With almost every device out there equipped with some sort of camera, it's so easy to capture a moment. This is what technology has developed into: people together in one area, posing different ways, making different faces, and a sea of different devices pointed at them.

Even with the huge advancement in technological specs (the iphone 7 has a 12 megapixel/LED flash/ auto-stabilizing back camera, and an "HD facetime front camera with auto-picture stabilization"), I still find many people shaming others for "always taking pictures." Why is it such a bad thing to want to capture a moment? Why does it seem that the younger generations are portrayed as narcissistic for using cameras? It baffles me that some people are so bothered by what other people are doing. I went to Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas' tour over the summer, and you bet that I took a million photos and even videos. I want to remember the time I spent having fun (and especially for how much we paid for tickets, I wasn't leaving without something to look back on). Yes I realize that when you go to a show, you're there to enjoy the moment, but it's not like I recorded the whole show or sat there taking 20 pictures a minute. For the performances that I really wanted to enjoy again, I would record them or take some pictures when the lighting was good enough. This shouldn't make me earn "the look" from older parents who frankly didn't look too excited to be there. Technology is there to be used, so why don't people want us to use it?

Maybe it's because they're envious that they didn't have such great devices to capture memories on, or maybe they just don't see a point in keeping so many pictures. I bet anyone born in the' 80s or '90s can admit that their parents walked around with a giant camcorder at birthday parties, family reunions, and holidays. Our fascination with picture taking or recording is similar to that of our parents/grandparents, it's new and fun. Snapchat has new filters, Instagram has stories (trying to compete with Snapchat, eh?) and there's apps like Shots that are dedicated to photo sharing, so who can blame us for wanting to try all of it? Plus, with so much of the "young generation" becoming parents, we want to take more pictures and videos so we have something to hold onto as our children grow up.

I'm a college student, and I'm in a big city (shout out to Boston for just being awesome, as usual) so I always want to find a new place or a new angle to take pictures. I only have four years (well, only 2 now since I just started my junior year) at this school, and I want to capture as many moments as possible. I take a bunch of pictures of my room, me and my friends in the cafe, and my roommates and I goofing around. I frequently capture our daily activities on Snapchat or Instagram, and I love it. I love making memories, but it's great to have a way to preserve them. People may think I'm not "living in the moment" because I record my roommates and I doing mundane things like cooking or art projects, or that I'm self-absorbed because I take a lot of selfies, but I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry for taking a moment to make sure a memory will be captured. We can always make new moments, but we can never get a moment back. I just wish I had stopped feeling guilty sooner. We have no reason to feel guilty for taking a damn picture. So go ahead, take that 23rd selfie with the dog filter, record your best friend rapping to Drake or dancing to Beyonce, because it will be just as funny in two months when you're feeling down. I think that's what pictures and videos are to many of us, little gems of happiness we can look back on. In a world with so much negativity, it's nice to have something that makes you happy.