Don’t Let Snapshots Keep You From Seeing the World

When people notice something interesting or beautiful these days, there’s often a natural impulse to pull out their smartphones and snap a photo of it, preserving that moment and memory. But “there’s a big problem associated with [this],” says The School of Life in the 3-minute video above. “We’re likely to be so busy taking the pictures we forget to look at the world whose beauty and interest prompted us to take a photograph in the first place.”

Victorian English art critic John Ruskin noticed this problem in the early years of photography, and his recommendation was that everyone take up drawing as a way to study the world more closely. Whether or not you actually do take up sketching, there’s a simple takeaway: make sure you never let your camera get in the way of you seeing and appreciating the world you’re photographing.