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by m463 2209 days ago
People forget that even pre-smartphone, people would go on trips and put themselves behind a camera instead of entering the scenery.
2 comments

Some people did. You can still see their caricatures in movies as obnoxious tourists doing silly things because they can't see much through their viewfinder. The reality though was that real cameras were big heavy objects that you had to lug around on a strap or in a case. The other option were cheap disposables or other types of cheap camera that were almost as bulky. It's not quite the same as always having something in your pocket that you can use to intermediate your experience. Most people did without cameras or kept them packed away in their luggage for those reasons. It's funny to think about the difference between how casually people take pictures now since they are cheap, quick, and easy compared to how the mood of a situation used to change when someone got their camera out.
Indeed, and I even didn't carry a camera. Maybe I'm a freak, but I didn't want to be distracted by it, and I never bothered to look at the pictures. There was always someone else taking pictures.