They move through galleries fast and with a new purpose \u2014 cellphones in hand, they\u2019re on Instagram treks and selfie hunts \u2014 and with a new viewing rhythm: Stop, point, pose, snap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’ll just start by saying I hate this article. I hate the wording. I hate the attitude. I hate the way of thinking. I hate that the article sounds like another\u00a0“them-versus-us” argument about\u00a0the detrements of social media<\/em> and\u00a0those young people are on those darn smartphones too much.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Although yes, there are people who are just that vain and do go to museums just to take “selfies,” generalizing an entire demographic as attending museums for such reason is… stupid.<\/p>\n Like libraries, they were places where the volume was low, the energy slow, the technology unobtrusive. You came to them to look, to think and, in the days before museums became the prime social spaces they are now, to be alone in a small, like-minded crowd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, and you also used to pay gas that didn’t make your wallet cry, used to refer to a paper map for driving directions, and used to\u00a0dial an industrial-grade plastic\u00a0telephone with a corded handset. So what?\u00a0What point are you trying to make? That museums are no longer the same environment back in “the good ol’ days?”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My own introduction to art was remote and virtual, at home as a kid, looking through books, flipping pages, stopping when something caught my attention. But what got me hooked were visits to museums, notably the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and seeing crucial features of art that didn\u2019t come through in reproduction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The attitude this author has is preventing him from realizing this: the same way books motivated him to go out to the museums to experience the real thing, social media is serving for the present generation. He speaks of everything books lacked\u2013scale, experience, texture\u2013without realizing that the “digital photographs” he speaks of are\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>seen as a holy grail that our generation is using to substitute a live experience. He sites a survey that states the obvious\u2013that people prefer to see museums in person. He ends his argument with, again, the obvious\u2013that photos do not suffice in terms of experiencing art. What he completely fails to see is that us, as “young people,” agree with him as well. I can attest to this firsthand, as my list of must-visit-when-I-have-free-time museums were generated from a\u00a0friend’s Instagram.<\/a>\u00a0Without him, I probably would not have known about the more obscure, local museums outside of the LACMA and the recent Broad-buzz. Furthermore, museums own social media accounts do not supplement a substitute for a real life visit, but rather encourages it, seen below in the Pasadena Museum of California Art’s Instagram.<\/p>\n Obviously there is the same motivative quality in social media as the author found in books. Just because we are now in an age of “digital natives” does not mean that all museum goers today lack substance. In fact, the fact that the author has a discouraging tone towards those who do manage to visit a museum in person, assuming and brushing off their motive as vain, only weakens his already ill-focused argument to me. He’s not satisfied with millennial culture making museums accessible online, nor is he satisfied with the reasons that make them want to go in person… What is he trying to achieve?<\/p>\n The only\u00a0thing this article achieves is perpetuating an unnecessary “us-versus-them” mentality over a subject that is (somewhat) universally agreed upon. \u00a0How can you call this good journalism?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w16\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/Screen-Shot-2016-02-16-at-2.17.25-AM.png\")