Digital Camera Abuse

It's at every social gathering I go to. Some portion of time must be devoted to taking pictures, looking at and reacting to each one directly after it's been taken. There's this hilarious picture from my study abroad trip to England where we're in a night club, but all we're really doing is being glued to our cameras. When I 'm dancing, nobody really cares (except the person taking the picture and the other people in the frame who are also posing for the picture) because they're all staring at their own cameras, probably at pictures they just took of themselves!

I'm totally guilty of the camera obsession, too; I'll admit it.. Is it just because of vanity? Does everyone just want to achieve that perfect picture that captures them from their best angle in the best light, next to the coolest people doing the most interesting thing? That's probably part of it. I wonder if we'll still have all these pictures somewhere on our computers when we have kids. I like to root through my parents' old pictures, but there are so few of them. Basically just their wedding and the occasional Polaroid from camp or something. But we like to document every moment, significant or not. I just don't get why I and, it seems, so many other people get so much fascination out of seeing themselves on that digital screen.