Changing perceptions in a digital World

Everybody. Welcome to another episode of the PW podcast. I was watching a video this week, and I have tried very hard to find the link to share with you, but I cannot find it, which is really frustrating because it's a good video that really got me to thinking and it's guided my thoughts in this episode and I really wanna give credit to the person involved. So I'll describe it the best I can and if you can find it, if you or if you made the video, please somebody send me the link and I'll put it in the show notes. It went something like this.

Right. There was a gentleman in the UK and he was talking about how people react when he is using a pen and a notepad in public, and of course by this the negative way they react, which to me is totally bizarre because we now live in a world where people can stare at their phones 247 anywhere in the world and nobody gives it a second thought. Yet, someone with a pen and paper or where I'm going in this episode is somebody with a camera that's an actual camera somehow draws the attention of folks because they perceive it as being, I don't wanna use the word weird, but unusual and out of the norm and this is really bizarre because okay. I'll mention quickly, right? When I was a kid, I went everywhere with the camera, of course, being into photography And nobody gave it a second thought.

Not once. And these days, you go around with a camera in your hand that is clearly a camera, a true camera. Right? And people start to wonder, what are you doing? What are you taking pictures of?

Now, there are legitimate reasons you should be concerned. Right? And I'll I'll say it. Unfortunately, we do live in a world where if you see someone taking a pictures in an area where there's kids and things like that, yes, of course. There should be genuine concern because there are some very strange folks in this world.

But if you're just standing in the middle of nowhere or whatever taking a picture of some building or whatever it may be in public, it's odd to me that for some reason you are considered out of the norm. Right? Yet, if I stood there with my phone taking a picture, nobody would give it a second thought. And that's what the thoughts that it sparked for me when I was watching this guy with the video and he was saying some folks would look at him or even come up and ask him. What are you doing?

When he's just standing there using a pen and a notepad to put down whatever thoughts or notes he has and this just struck me as really bizarre because if you think about it whether you're taking a photograph or writing something down or whatever it may be, if you are using your phone with the camera and and all the tools in there, you can record infinitely more detail about the situation, the location, whatever, than you could in a few seconds with a pen and a notepad or a conventional camera. And why are folks not more concerned about people with phones? And what are they doing? Right? Why why is it that somehow someone taking a picture with a phone camera is one thing and someone taking exactly the same picture with a camera somehow makes them people looking on think differently.

It's just bizarre to me, right? We're now in a world where it's flipped around the other way. It used to be if you think back not that many years ago, if you were standing there with a phone or in my case, I remembered. Do you remember the little things like palm pilots and those little PDAs and things like that? That would get folks attention because they'd be like, what is this?

What have you got? What are you doing? And now it's flipped around the other way where if you're doing something analog, people are like, what are you doing? What's going on there? And I just wanted to put that out there as a thought because it's really sad when you live in a world where things like that even matter.

And I just wanted to put out there, it just reminded me of the situation with photography and like I say, if anyone can find this link, I wish I could find it again. It doesn't show in my history. I really want to give this gentleman credit because it just really struck a chord with me this week. If you have any thoughts about this, reach out to me. Go to peterwhidham.com or, hey, leave reviews and thoughts of this podcast and podcast episode.

That's it, folks. Just wanted to put that out there. What a bizarre world. Right? See you later.