Cameras and their Psychosocial Impact

 By Vedangee Kadam, SYBA

Originally, when Cameras were invented, they proved to be tiny time travel devices that allowed people to capture the best moments of their lives and then travel back in time to relive these memories. Today, however, the scope of its utility has gone much beyond the intended purpose of a camera. With the help of futuristic technology, cameras enable people to even travel to the future by reimagining their faces in 50 years or those of their future children. 

With the evolution of the camera itself, its role and significance in society have gradually evolved as well. This article aims to delve into the psychological and sociological impact of cameras - how they have brought about a fundamental change in the human mindset and society, in general. 

Prior to the invention of cameras, there were only two common ways for people to capture the world around them - either through written and verbal descriptions or by drawing and painting the scene. However, the veracity of such depictions proved to be dubious - words were prone to getting distorted, and drawings largely depended on the artist’s skill and ability. The biggest caveat of both descriptions and drawings was that they were secondary sources of information. They heavily relied on a person’s observation, interpretation and memory, and it was easy for details to get lost in this muddle. All this pointed towards a growing need for a method to capture reality as it really is. And out of this need arose a ‘camera’ - an instrument that accurately and quickly captured and stored images. Photographs are considered to be primary sources of information as they provide first-hand or direct evidence and document a specific moment in time from the perspective of the person who created it, thereby bypassing the need for an external interpretation and consequently, overcoming the limitations of drawings and descriptions.

In the modern era, cameras have long surpassed their original purpose. They have literally become an inextricable part of people’s lives, as every person with a mobile phone in their hand by default carries a tiny little camera with them everywhere they go, ready to capture and document the world the way they see it. Further, they are used literally everywhere - they travel into our bodies during medical procedures and are even sent out into the great unknowns of space to document our universe. The most important use of a camera in today’s world is its power to bring words, thoughts, and ideas to life through a screen. A photograph, despite simply being a still that depicts reality, has the ability to tell an entire story by itself. It doesn’t need any words or context, but only the viewer’s attention, for only he can weave narratives in the picture, make characters out of models and derive meaning from a single image. 

Over time, as cameras started to become household items, they were used to take formal family portraits and photos on special occasions like weddings or birthdays. People started going to photo studios to click family pictures every few years, as a way to document their lives. This was the only way that parents, who were so busy working hard to provide a better life for their children and who often missed out on their children’s lives, could look back at their children growing up. It even became a tradition in Indian weddings for the guests to mandatorily take a photo with the couple to prove that they attended the wedding and blessed the duo. Such photos were then proudly presented on mantelpieces for the world to see or made their way into family albums, enabling people to look back and reminisce about happier times in their lives. Cameras also found places in the daily lingo of people, where the phrase ‘a Kodak moment’ was used to describe a happy moment in life that needed to be preserved through a camera. All this highlights the way cameras have become so ubiquitous in the quotidian culture and life of people.

On a micro level, the existence of cameras impacts every single individual. Photographs can both trigger and relieve emotions like nostalgia. They enable people to relive past memories, and just looking at the photos of lost loved ones can ease the grief and longing in our hearts. Cameras render distance immaterial as technology like video calling brings people together and allays loneliness and sadness. For instance, it is only through a camera that a soldier posted on the border can capture a glimpse of his newborn baby living miles away. 

Moreover, photography also satiates human curiosity and gives structure to man’s wild imagination. Of all living species, human beings are probably the most curious animals with a significantly developed imagination. Humans are naturally predisposed to explore the unknown for new information, and the invention of cameras has aided this tendency of human beings. The mere fact that a photo taken anywhere in the universe with a camera can end up in the hands of someone sitting halfway across the world, thereby giving that person a first-hand experience of how the world looks in a place that he will probably never go to, is a testament to the invaluable importance of cameras in human life. Cameras have enabled people to possess and share answers to the mysteries of the world, better than any other source could ever have. 

Man’s imagination has been his most trusted and necessary resource, and cameras have just made it more valuable. For instance, earlier, we could only dream about the universe or the depths of the oceans, but today, we can literally look up photos of space or of oceans on the internet and completely trust their veracity.

On a broader scale, cameras have also had an immense impact on human society in general. Most importantly, they have revolutionised the field of science. Early scientists like Ibn al-Haytham studied optics with the camera obscura, and later pioneers applied light-sensitive chemicals to capture images, leading to the first photographic cameras used for scientific photography to record phenomena beyond human vision. Today, advanced cameras are indispensable in fields like astronomy (e.g., Hubble Space Telescope's images revealing dark energy), biology, climate science, and medicine, enabling detailed imaging of everything from distant galaxies to microscopic cellular structures and are also vital sources of empirical evidence.  

Beyond science, the influence of cameras on social institutions like media and mass communication, and fields like entertainment, reporting, surveillance, etc., cannot be overstated. Photo and video sharing social networking sites like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. have developed solely because of cameras, and the impact of such platforms is widely known. Cameras have given impetus to visual storytelling, where individuals and media outlets can share stories and experiences, and disseminate information through images and videos, thus going beyond just words. 

Perhaps the most significant contribution of cameras has been to the field of art, through the creation of the discipline of photography. A question often arises when talking about it - when does photography become art? The answer, according to me, is when a photo is able to tell a story without giving anything away. It becomes art when the viewer is able to interpret the photo and derive meaning from it. For this purpose, one does not need any context or background; rather, an intelligent observer is better suited to appreciate art in the lack of such aids. Such a photograph should be the pinnacle of the photographer’s creative expression, enabling him to go beyond just taking photos for mere documentation. These efforts of the photographer should be complemented by the viewer, and once both of them are able to weave a story of their own making into a picture, that’s the moment when the photo becomes art.

On the other hand, the evolution of cameras has also led to an unfavourable change in the human mindset and in society. They have led to some unprecedented problems that can be considered concerning in today's world. Earlier, ‘taking a photo’ meant hiring a photographer on special occasions and trying to fit as many people as possible in a single frame. People posed together while embracing each other, their proximity being a cause for their unity. Today, with cameras present in every hand, they are more inclined to take ‘selfies’ rather than group photos, reflecting an increasingly individualistic attitude of today’s generation.

Cameras have had a significant role to play in the evolution of social media; therefore, in the modern context, the negative impact of cameras is largely linked to the cons of social media. With the rise of social media, photos are captured not to document reality but rather to share on the internet, and the aim here is to seek social validation in the form of likes, comments and followers. People spend more time Photoshopping and editing the imperfections in their photos. Therefore, the outcome of photography is measured not by how accurately it depicts reality but by how well it fits modern trends and beauty standards, its aesthetic value and its ‘Instagrammability’. Moreover, if people aren’t happy with their own photos or they do not receive adequate validation from others, it leads to an inferiority complex, body dysmorphia and the like. Thus, this gives an idea of the far-reaching consequences of cameras in today’s society. 

Another concern that arises while dealing with cameras today is the distortion of reality. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and futuristic technologies, the sanctity of cameras is somewhat compromised. This means that, although cameras were previously lauded as being the most authentic source of information since they provided a first-hand depiction of reality as it is, without any tampering, this could not be said to be true today. The veracity of photographs couldn’t be trusted anymore because it has become all too easy to twist and manipulate reality into a form that suited our needs and interests. AI photo generation tools, made popular by Ghibli or Gemini trends, are accessible to everyone, and although they might look like harmless fun on the surface, no one stops to dwell on the wider ramifications of the widespread use of such tools. 

There was a tendency among people to take photos and videos at face value, but now, even while watching the news on television, our minds have become trained to challenge the authenticity of the footage shown. The point here is that today, we are unable to trust even our own eyes, which in turn quietly points towards a degradation of honesty and trust in society, with one of its causal factors being the misuse of cameras. While surveillance and CCTV cameras are used to ensure safety, ironically, these cameras are also the cause of security breaches and other such criminal activities. Deepfake technology, for instance, that produces synthetic media out of photos, videos and the like, is infamous for its potential use in scams, frauds and the creation of adult content. 

Although cameras are hailed for their accurate portrayal of reality, there is a thin, but fine line between cameras and mirrors. In a philosophical sense, mirrors show us our true face; they aren’t merely ‘portrayals’, but reality in its actual sense. Cameras, on the other hand, present a snapshot of our lives; they capture moments in time in neat frames, but what exists beyond the scope of a camera is always a mystery. We, today, tend to click the best moments of our lives in our cameras, cropping away all the other good, bad and ugly things. We are trying to trade aesthetics for reality, all the while taking for granted the sole instrument that has made all this possible - the camera.

All these concerns that have originated with the rise of cameras, social media and AI had been predicted right back in 1967 by French philosopher and Marxist theorist Guy Debord. His book, ‘The Society of Spectacle’, is considered to be a seminal work of the Situationist movement as it establishes the concept of ‘the spectacle’. Debord relates the term to a social phenomenon where everything directly lived recedes into a representation, thus leading to an alienation from authentic experience. (Debord, 1967)

For instance, social media has conditioned us into making others believe that we are living our best lives by only showcasing the ‘highlights’ of our days. But real life is never made up of only happy moments; rather, the richness and quality of our life depend on our reaction to problems and failures. Instead of depicting reality as it is, we’re taught to present a picture-perfect version of it, sans the imperfections and thus Debord describes this version of reality as "a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at". 

According to Debord, our present social life is marked by "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing." In such a society, mass media rules the consumers, instead of being ruled by them. Consequently, people become passive subjects with limited to no autonomy over the media they consume, the data or images they share and how these images are perceived by others. Although people share their photos online for social validation, they are often met with ridicule for their appearance, which reflects how society is becoming increasingly superficial, focusing on appearances and aesthetics more than anything else. 

The negative repercussions of the use of cameras, and by extension, social media, are rooted in Karl Marx’s theory of alienation (Marx, 1844). This theory refers to the separation of individuals from their work, their wider world, their human nature, and even themselves. In the modern context, since cameras have become pervasive in our social lives, social media users have become passive consumers who have lost their autonomy and their ability to think critically. They have hence gotten stuck in the vicious cycle of taking photos, posting them on Instagram for more likes and engagement and repeating the entire process if they are unsatisfied with the results. This endless loop has become so deeply ingrained in the minds of these individuals that they do not even realise their estrangement from reality or even from their own selves. Therefore, although it might be hard to fathom that the invention of an innocuous and harmless device - ‘the camera’, can have disastrous consequences of such an extensive magnitude, it is pertinent to note that the sole innovation of cameras, but their disorderly and inconsiderate usage, has rendered these results. It thus acts as a word of caution to our future generations to identify the repercussions of all phenomena and take measures to prevent any negative outcomes.

In conclusion, in spite of all its cons, the fundamental shift brought in society and mankind by cameras can’t be ignored. I believe that it is an important social institution in itself, by the grace of the role it has played in shaping our modern society. Perhaps, even the inventors of the camera themselves might not have realized how extensive and valuable the impact of cameras would be. Thus, this goes to show that the invention of cameras has truly been a miraculous innovation and that we must ensure that this indispensable resource is used for the right reasons.

References -

Debord, G. (1994). The society of the spectacle (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Zone Books. (Original work published 1967)

Marx, K. (1964). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 (M. Milligan, Trans.). International Publishers. (Original work published 1844)