How Has the Camera Changed Lives?
The invention of the camera changed the world by allowing people to highlight social norms, but also by allowing for documentation of perverted desires, by creating new ways to be insensitive, by documenting parts of everyday life, by creating a new venue for advertising and by changing journalism and allowing people to create documentaries.
The camera allows people to highlight what they believe in by giving them the power to document the world as they see fit. This allows people the power to concentrate on what they see as socially fit and ignore aspects of life that they do not consider acceptable.
At the same time that the camera enforces social norms, it also documents cases in which those norms may be broken. When used as a spy device, a camera has far more power than just as a tool of observation. The camera can also fulfill voyeuristic or pornographic desires by photographing sexual situations.
As the camera developed, it became readily available to amateurs. This completely changed the way in which daily life was documented, allowing for photographs of families and special moments.
Advertising is also completely different because of photography. Although drawings were possible in the past, photography has radically changed society’s conception of advertisements. The modeling industry, for example, would likely not exist as is without cameras.
Finally, the camera has helped the public in a journalistic sense by giving them a clearer perception of what the events that they read or hear about are like. However, cameras have also created concern in this respect because it is easier for explicit pictures of violence or of a sexual nature to reach wider (and sometimes unintended) audiences.
