With wedding season in full swing and so many of my friends getting married, I’ve been lucky enough to attend several pre-nuptial events. I’ve been following the aftermath of these events on Facebook and rather than drag out why I’m writing about this or who’s involved, I’m just going to put it out there: I think cameras of any kind should be banned from stag and stagette parties.
It’s no secret photographic evidence from these wedding rituals and rites of passage can do more harm than good. But it’s not enough to simply acknowledge this harm and encourage your friends to honour the no-pic and post rule: abjuring photos from stags and stagettes has to find a place in pop culture before things can really change. We need to create a meme or cultural “on-switch” to remind us they don’t belong.
We’re pretty busy these days, posting our lives on Facebook and making a point to capture these events in the hopes that our friends will comment and thus, make us feel included and “cool.” I think we need to stop and consider what, exactly, we should be doing to ensure there’s protocol around what should not be posted on Facebook. Stags and bachelorettes are an excellent place to start.
Just like we have the catch phrase “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” which has embedded itself into mainstream culture and risen to meme status, we need a reminder that cell phones and digital cameras should be put away, left at home or thrown off a bridge for the sake of unbridled fun times** with our friends. An added bonus to doing away with photos during a stag or girls night out also minimizes the number of drunken and destructive phone calls you make to your potential new partner or, heaven forbid, ex-lover.
In a perfect world, the likes of Seth Rogen or Andy Samberg could alter the world of photo and Facebook etiquette forever by writing it into one of their scripts. The post-credit photo sequence at the end of “The Hangover” is a perfect example (keep in mind, it’s R-rated -er, X-rated.) Alas, we’re left to our own devices.
I ran this idea by a friend and he suggested the catch phrase come off as something like the “papa-nazi.” Perhaps this particular phrase is a little too loaded but it’s a start. We need a go-to line that can be heard and understood across a strip club or martini-strewn counter that is quickly and simply understood by the crowd as “put ’em away boys and girls ’cause tomorrow is another day.”
**When I say unbridled fun times, I do not mean breaking the law or committing adultery or hurting yourself or anyone else around you for that matter. Follow my advice and embrace this motto: make smart decisions (patent pending.)
I’ve got friends who’d go so far as to say “Put ’em away or I’ll break yer bloody nose…” XD
Fun contri, Theo, about a serious topic. I remember when back in High School it was sometimes bad enough when at a really thrilling party, someone had a camera and pics were going ’round about a week later. Pretty embarassing, sometimes. But that was in the time from ’95 to ’98, digital photography was expensive, cells were something Mulder and Scully were using and the Internet – well it was all HTML-deserts and we never thought it would “make it”.
To cut this short: You could control proliferation of embarassment way better. The restrictive (and necessary!) approach to privacy you suggest ties in pretty neat with something I keep on discovering as a freelancer again and again: The real luxury is to be able to be offline… ^ ^