Choose the right destination, enjoy the landscape… and take THE perfect photo. For many couples, vacations are now experienced behind the lens of a smartphone. However, this quest for the ideal shot is not always without consequences. According to a survey carried out by FLASHS among 1,001 French people, nearly 9 out of 10 young men admit that it puts a strain on their nerves on vacation.
A vacation that is first experienced through the lens
Today, a beautiful vacation photo is no longer just about a beautiful landscape. “It must also highlight others, be successful enough to be published and meet certain requirements. specifies the investigation.
The image thus occupies a central place in the journey. 89% of young couples surveyed also believe that it is important to choose an “instagrammable” destination, while 92% consider that it should be used to take beautiful photos… of themselves.
This importance given to clichés is also found in married life. Four out of ten women (40%) explain that they wait for their partner to spontaneously photograph them during the holidays… and 82% even see it as a real proof of attention, or even love.
When the “perfect” photo becomes a source of tension
If asking someone else to take a photo of us is a relatively trivial process, it can become more complex. More than one in two women (52%) admit to having already blamed their partner for a photo deemed “unsuccessful”. And in 70% of cases, it’s because she felt she wasn’t highlighted enough.
Requirements that fuel a well-known phenomenon on social networks: that of the “Instagram husband”. This famous partner who spends part of his vacation behind the lens to get the perfect shot – and who suffers for it. Moreover, the figures prove it:
- Nearly 9 in 10 men (87%) say they feel at least one form of frustration when photographing their partner;
- More than a third (35%) cite pressure to meet expectations, 31% feel uncomfortable taking photos in public;
- 18% of them feel that these photo sessions encroach on their vacation time.
A quest for the ideal photo… which does not succeed
The most paradoxical (and annoying)? All these efforts (and tests) do not necessarily result in a publication. Nearly one in four women (24%) admit to giving up sharing the said photo on social networks.
The companion “may feel interchangeable”
A photo from time to time? Obviously. But when every outing, every meal, every trip, every concert turns into a photo shoot… It’s normal to be fed up, according to Amélie Boukhobza, clinical psychologist.
“Certain moments are no longer just experienced to be experienced but thought to be shown. And the partner is no longer really the one with whom we share the moment. It is the one who documents it”, she observes.
By looking for the right angle, the right light, the right pose, we can end up spending more time creating the memory… than living the moment.
“So obviously, a question comes to me. Why has this photo become so important? I can’t believe that it’s about keeping a memory, is it still to share a moment… or just because we need this moment to be seen, validated, admired? I lean more towards the second hypothesis. And I understand that the person behind the lens can sometimes have the feeling of no longer enjoying anything. Or even of being interchangeable! As if he no longer had the right to be spontaneous. As if everything now had to be staged”, confides the practitioner.
Afterwards, if both benefit from it, why not.
“But I find it interesting to wonder if, by wanting to show too much that we live… we don’t end up living a little less,”
concludes Amélie Boukhobza.