Are We Having Fun, or Just Documenting It?
By Alana Hudy
Edited by Anna Kate Mereness
It's Friday night. Music is blasting, makeup is scattered across the bathroom counter and you've already changed your outfit three times. After an hour of getting ready with your friends, everyone's finally ready to leave.
Except nobody's actually leaving.
First come the mirror pictures. Then the group pictures. Someone doesn't like how they look, so you take 20 more. You switch rooms for better lighting and promise this is the last one.
Before you know it, you've spent more time trying to capture the beginning of the night than actually enjoying it.
I'm guilty of it, too. I love looking back at pictures with my friends and putting together Instagram photo dumps. But lately, I've wondered when making memories became so closely tied to documenting them.
Are we actually having fun, or are we just making sure it looks like we are?
College is constantly described as one of the best times of our lives. We're told these are the years we'll miss, the friendships we'll never forget and the experiences we'll wish we could relive.
But somewhere along the way, that excitement turns into pressure.
We don't just want a memorable college experience. We want one that looks memorable, too. Our feeds are filled with concerts, nights out and perfectly arranged photo dumps. Suddenly, a quiet Friday night feels like missing out, and a fun weekend seems less exciting without pictures to prove it.
There's something ironic about how much effort goes into making our lives look effortless. Even spontaneous-looking photo dumps involve choosing the right pictures, arranging them in the perfect order and making sure everything fits the vibe.
Sometimes, we're already imagining the Instagram post before the night has even begun.
But I don't think our obsession with documenting everything is entirely about social media. Part of it comes from knowing how quickly life changes, especially in college.
One day, you're moving into a dorm with strangers. Before you know it, they've become your closest friends, your favorite places feel like home and you're counting down semesters instead of years.
Maybe that's why we take so many pictures. We want to remember who we spent our weekends with and what it felt like to be this version of ourselves.
We can't slow down time, so we try to hold on to pieces of it.
But there's something sad about being so focused on preserving memories for our future selves that we forget to experience them in the present.
When I think about my favorite memories, they're not necessarily the ones with the best pictures. They're the conversations that lasted until 2 a.m., spontaneous late-night food runs and car rides when everyone knew every word to the song playing.
A photograph can remind us where we were and who stood beside us, but it can't fully capture how those moments felt.
I'm not going to pretend I'll stop taking pictures. Someday, I'll be grateful for every blurry photo and random video that brings me back to these years.
But I want to recognize when a moment deserves my full attention instead of my camera.
So take the pictures. Save the blurry videos. Make the photo dumps.
Just don't become so focused on remembering your life that you forget to live it.
Because someday, we won't wish we had posted more. We'll wish we could experience those ordinary moments one more time.
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