Imagine a teenager who always has has the newest phones and is the person you come to when your phone stops working in your head for a moment. What do you think they would use to take their photos? Probably a high tech camera with an amazing zoom and overall just really advanced, right? Well unfortunately, this is incorrect. Teenagers all around the world are using the newest but repeated craze; disposable cameras. 

 

Let’s not act like we haven’t seen this before; they were everywhere in the 90s and the 2000s but now they have made their, in my opinion,  deserved comeback. I spoke to Aram Kim, a 15 year old teenager who said “disposable cameras have a more organic, natural feel. They feel less posed and more relaxed to use; I think teenagers find it refreshing”. Aram often uses disposable cameras to take photos with her friends or photos with memories that feels more important, more significant. A phone camera doesn’t do it justice. 

 

That’s the core reason; photos on your phone don’t have any significance. Photo of a pretty light bulb? Yes please. Oh that’s a pretty flower - *click*. You see the problem? The worst part is, after, we act surprised when we have a camera roll with 10,000 meaningless moments combined. 

 

So why don’t we all just use disposable cameras then? Unfortunately, as amazing and meaningful disposable cameras feel, it’s not a cheap hobby. The average disposable camera costs 8 pounds on top of the development which is a whopping 13, so it adds up to a cringeworthy bill of 21 pounds; and for what? 

 

What I suggest is a new solution. Not to brag but - it won’t make your wallet cry, leave you with 100,000 photos from one day or makes you spend £11000 on a camera which fades as a hobby in a week. I think we need to take the mindset we use for the disposable cameras, and transfer it to our phones. It won’t be simple, but I think it can transform the way we make memories. 

 

Instead of taking 3 photos, take 1. Instead of taking a meaningless selfie, try take a candid photo of your friend laughing. I predict that after you do this, you will have a camera roll filled with memories you actually want to remember – because otherwise why even bother to take the photo?

 

This society has changed and developed into a place where the accepted use of a phone is to take the perfect selfie with the lighting so that you can look your best or a photo worth putting on your Instagram feed - it’s all very superficial. I think we should take photos of moments where we find little bursts of colour in what can seem like a b&w world. For example, I started to test my theory and just took photos of little things that added to my day or made me smile to myself. I was scrolling through my camera roll recently and surprisingly, I had the same small feeling of joy that I had when I took it. I took a photo of my friend laughing and I found myself laughing again at it. Isn’t that quite revolutionary? In a world where we can experience each spark of happiness twice or even three times, all because we pressed *click*.