The Scientific Case Against Filming Yourself Rock Climbing
Put the camera down and step away from the tripod.
In 2026 it is a very common to see climbers at crags and gyms filming themselves climbing. Wanting to take a selfie is an understandable impulse — you are doing something you are passionate about, and want to share souvenirs from your special experiences with your friends and family. Perhaps you want others to see the things you have achieved, to inspire them in their own climbing, or to see all the progress you are making along the road of life.
These are good things. But are there any downsides? Are you losing anything from turning the lens onto yourself?
In this short essay we will review the scientific evidence that suggests the answer to these questions is yes.
However, we’re not going to be talking about the obvious downsides to filming, such as the impact of drones on wildlife, or of viral videos causing erosion-inducing stampedes for particular routes.
Instead we’re going to focus on how the camera can alter your experience of climbing rock, change your memories, limit your future, and even warp your self-understanding. The evidence for these effects has been quantitatively evidenced in numerous, relatively recent, academic journal articles. All claims made in this essay are based on these articles, and citations to them can be found in footnotes.
Two Selves, One Life
We will start this essay with a metaphor, popularised by Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman.
Kahneman contends that it is as though we have two selves: a remembering self, and an experiencing self. He based this on a series of experiments showing that what we value upon reflection doesn’t always correlate with what we experienced in the moment.1
These two aspects of what makes a life valuable are regularly identified by climbers who think about climbing.
For example, Ueli Steck famously observed that the value of climbing is lived in the moment:
Mountaineering is a transient experience. I need to continuously repeat it to live it.2
And as Earl Denman explains, there is also value in reflecting on climbing experiences:
The soul stirring view on this morning remains vivid in my mind. That is one of the main reasons we undergo the attendant hardships of climbing — to gain a wealth of memories that will stand us in good stead during later years.3
The dual nature of the self is also reflected in climbing philosopher R. L. G. Irving’s dual test for the value of a climb:
Does it excite wonder [experiencing self], and does it survive the test of time [remembering self]?4
But this duality presents us with a riddle.
Should we aim to be happy in our lives, or be happy with our lives?
Should we aim to be happy in the moment, or be happy upon reflection?
These are two very different questions, implying two different standards of what makes for a good life, and with very different implications for how we make choices.
The experiencing and the remembering selves should be familiar to climbers. They underwrite the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 fun. This basic idea can be reformulated accordingly:
We want all our climbs to be Type I: this is Irving's ideal climb: good for us now and good for us later. But if we prioritise the enjoyment of the remembering self we transform our climbs into Type II activities: we reduce the quality of the present moment, and receive a valuable memory in return. This can be a fair exchange, indeed, we do this all the time when we seek out harrowing experiences that might yield personal growth or a good story.
So what does this all have to do with recording yourself climbing?
Below we will show that recent scientific evidence suggest that filming yourself climbing compromises the experience of that climbing. In terms of our graph, this means that recording yourself climbing risks moving the climb from being a Type I to being a Type II activity. In other words, that filming yourself climbing changes the present and reduces the well-being of the experiencing self.
But this is only part of the story. We will then show that scientific evidence suggests that recording yourself can corrupt you memories, and thereby turn your climbing into a Type III activity. In other words, filming yourself climbing changes the past and reduces the well-being of the remembering self.
We will conclude with the evidence that suggests recording yourself climbing even changes your future, and, perhaps most disturbingly of all can change what you understand yourself to be.
Part I: Changing the Present
The Joy of the Photograph
Let’s start with the good. Photographs are fun to look at. They remind us of events that happened to us. They can be shared with others. They can inspire others. And, most importantly, photographs can allow us to recall specific aspects of our experiences that we might not otherwise.5
Looking at photographs of past events sustain positive emotional memories when those events are retrieved later, resulting in higher positivity ratings for photographed experiences compared to unphotographed ones.6 In other words, having photographs can improve the happiness of the remembering self.
Taking photographs can also be enjoyable in-the-moment7 — but Diehl et al (2016) suggest this is only the case when the photography isn’t interfering with the experience and when that experience is itself not already highly-engaging.8 Nardini et al (2019) show that taking photographs decreases the enjoyment of experiences that are already highly enjoyable.9 So whether or not the experiencing self enjoys the photography depends on both the quality of the event and how much the photography is disrupting it.10
The risk here, as Kahneman notes, is that if we prioritise the remembering self too heavily we can begin to reconceptualise our present moments as if they are anticipated memories.11 In doing so we accept disruption and loss of engagement for our experiencing self so long as we maximise the satisfaction of our future remembering self. Kahneman refers to this state as being under “The Tyranny of the Remembering Self”.12
Disturbing stuff. But what other evidence is there that the experiencing self is negatively affected by taking photographs?
The Price of an Audience: Performing Instead of Being 🚨
Barasch et al (2018) demonstrate that intending to share the photos you are taking of an event — such as posting them to social media — triggers self-presentational concern, a state of anxiety about how one will be evaluated by an audience. This mental preoccupation with one's public image leads to a shift in perspective; instead of "being" in the moment, the individual begins to view their own life from the perspective of an outside observer. In other words, to shift from first-person to third-person. The pressure to curate a favorable impression leads to a measurable loss of pleasurable immersion, as the photographer becomes less engaged with the unfolding event and more focused on the prospective reaction of their audience.13
Climber and photographer Cory Richards experienced and wrote about this effect:
Perhaps the pure climbing experience exists in a realm not just beyond digital cameras — but beyond all forms of communication. The perfect story is the one that’s never told.14
Filming yourself rock climbing causes you to be less immersed in the moment because you’re imagining how your future audience will see you.
The Present-Absent Paradox: Distraction and Loss of Attention 🚨
But taking photos and videos comes with a cost to immersion even if there is no intention to share the recordings. Mols et al (2015) explored alternative capturing strategies during day trips found that photography narrows perception and divides attention.15 Participants became preoccupied with the act of photographing rather than the subjects, missing details they would normally perceive, and reported feeling disengaged from the experience itself. Niforatos et al (2017) showed these in-the-moment attentional costs translate to memory impairments: photo-takers remember less immediately after their experiences.16 Importantly, Braun et al (2024) demonstrated that these downsides depend on how attentionally demanding the photo-taking process is, indicating that the culprit is the distraction of operating the camera.17 And in extreme cases loss of attention due to camera operation can lead to accidental injury or death.18
Taking photos causes the experiencing self to be distracted, to be less engaged, and to miss important details.
Moving Different: Motor Control Changes 🚨
Besides being distracting, the presence of a camera can change our motor control. Hutchinson et al (2019) find that the awareness of being recorded induces changes to natural movement patterns. The study reported that individuals who knew they were being filmed increased their walking speed by 4% and exhibited an 18% increase in movement variability compared to when they were unaware.19 Beilock and Carr (2001) find that the presence of a video camera can induce self-consciousness, causing experienced sportspeople to regress from fluid, automatic movement to clunky, step-by-step conscious control.20
The impairment of motor control appears to be driven by the intent to show the footage to others. Sutskova et al (2023) found that performance suffered significantly only when participants believed a camera was being monitored by a human, whereas those who believed they were being watched by an AI showed no such decline. This suggests that the camera acts as a proxy for a judging audience; the mere belief that a person might eventually critique the movement is sufficient to trigger an effect.21
Being recorded changes how you move, particularly if the recordings will be seen by someone else.
Killing The Vibe: Interpersonal Disruption 🚨
The price of the camera isn’t only paid by your experiencing self, but also those around you. Wu et al (2025) identify a documenting penalty in shared experiences, finding that while individuals often feel more engaged when filming themselves, observers consistently judge them as less mentally present. Interestingly, this penalty persists even when the recording is outsourced to a tripod or captured on a dedicated digital camera rather than a phone; the study found that the device used did not mitigate the negative social judgment. This perception creates a social disconnect that specifically reduces friends’ interest in sharing future activities with the documenter.22 This could partly stem from an intuitive understanding that being recorded by others affects your attention23 and behaviour.24
These findings compound established evidence that mobile phones are distracting, reduce conversation,25 and impair enjoyment, undermining feelings of social connection and the meaning gained from spending time with friends and family26 as well as that which parents gain from spending time with their children.27
Taking photos causes others to perceive you as less engaged, damaging interpersonal bonds.
Part II: Changing the Past
Let’s return to our diagram. We have shown that recording yourself climbing compromises the in-the-moment experience. In other words, we are — at best — moving from A to B. Some people may think this is a fair trade, they may genuinely prefer to prioritise the remembering self over the experiencing self. However, in this part of the essay we will show that photos and videos risk replacing your memories. In the process you blunt your memories and, at worst, you can replace your remembering self with your photographs. You thereby end up with a Type III activity: it wasn't good for you in the moment, and now you can't even remember what it was really like.
Digital Amnesia: Cognitive Offloading 🚨
One function of photographs is to act as cues to aid recall of events. However, recording those events leads to the resultant memories being less detailed. Henkel (2013) named this the “photo-taking-impairment effect”.28 Tamir et al (2018) show that recording an event impairs objective memory, and suggest that the mere act of making a hard copy of a moment effectively cues the brain to only retain a diminished copy.29
Lurie et al (2025) confirm the failure is a result of psychological disengagement rather than the physical complexity of operating a camera.30 Instead, recording an event acts as a cue for the brain to reduce the effort it makes in encoding that event into memory.31 This has been termed “cognitive offloading”,32 and is similar to how we lose our ability to do mental mathematics by relying on calculators. Surprisingly, impairment persists even when photos are then intentionally deleted or taken with ephemeral apps like Snapchat.33
So what things do we forget? Lurie & Westerman (2021) find that recording degrades both the recall of specific visual details and the overall conceptual memory of the experience.34 Non-visual elements to the memory are most likely to be degraded.35 And critically for a climber, the impairment extends to spatial and contextual memory, limiting recall of objects’ locations and arrangement.
Several things exacerbate offloading. Firstly, the expectation of reviewing the footage later: meaning that having a strategic plan to study the attempt will compromise memory formation in the moment.36 Secondly, continuous video recording yields the largest impairment effect,37 and, if photographing, then taking multiple photographs also exacerbates impairment.38 Notably, recording yourself with a wearable camera does not yield an impairment effect.39
Recording yourself climbing causes you to remember a narrower range of things about the experience than you would otherwise.
Perspective Warping: Remembering the Photograph 🚨
Another problem with filming and photographing your climbing is that the resulting videos and pictures end up replacing your memories. Doug Scott, one of the few people to have seen a sunset from the summit of Everest and lived to tell the tale, writes how the photographs he took at the time now crowd-out his ability to remember the sensory experience he had being there:
At 6 p.m. we found ourselves walking side by side on to the summit. Dougal, usually a reticent fellow, had a huge smile on his face and then gave me a hug. After so much effort, and on a perfect late summer evening, we were there. […] The photographs I took, that I’ve shown so often since, dominate my memories of the summit, although sometimes the elation of that moment breaks through and I remember how it was.40
Scott’s experience is not unique. Numerous studies have found that when individuals review photographs that they feature in, they are significantly more likely to recall those events from an observer (third-person) perspective rather than the original own-eyes (first-person) perspective. These effects remain consistent for both recent and remote memories, suggesting that digital records do not just preserve the past but actively bias how we visually reconstruct our life stories over time.41 Reviewing a photo in which you feature also reduces the accuracy of our spatial memory for the photographed event42 as well as other sensory details.43 Reviewing third-person photos remind people of the abstract meaning of an event, as opposed to the sensory details of the experience — you don’t remember what it felt like, just what the photo means.44 But most significantly, if you review a third-person photo, you are more likely to get “stuck” in that observer viewpoint during future recalls, making the original first-person memory harder to access.45
Other studies report that reviewing photos containing the self yields less vivid and less emotionally intense memories than photos where the person was present at the event but not visible in the image. This suggests that prioritising self-presentation over the experience itself can undermine the sensory quality of the resulting memory.46
This shift from internal encounter to externalised audience is reinforced by the way digital sharing serves as a further anchor for the camera's viewpoint. Recent evidence suggests that selectively sharing photographs on social media significantly enhances the accuracy and consistency of 'captured' details — the specific visual elements visible in the frame — while failing to preserve the 'uncaptured' first-person details, such as internal sensory states or physical surroundings outside the lens's reach.47
In other words, the remembering self becomes your video recordings. Your treasured memories of embodied sensory experiences of moving on rock are replaced by abstract archives of watching yourself move over rock. You no longer inhabit your climbing memories, but archive them as if you are an editor or film director. Your memories of life are no longer that of internal encounter, but of an externalised audience.
Taking and reviewing photos and videos of you climbing destroys the relationship between the experiencing and remembering selves, and causes the remembering self to anchor heavily on the recordings.
Part III: Changing the Future
So far we have charted the costs to the experience and to memory — but recording yourself climbing also has implications for your future. By making recordings of your climbing you alter the future behaviour of both yourself and others.
No Returns: Reduced Desire to Revisit 🚨
Having photographs or videos of a place reduces a person's intention to revisit a place. This is primarily because these visual records serve as memory tokens that diminish the perceived value of returning. Lee et al (2021) find suggest that having a photo makes experiences seem more tangible because it is easier to recall the experience.48 By serving as a 'memory token,' these photographs diminish the perceived utility of returning because the past can be accessed without a physical visit. So in order to ‘relive’ a valued past experience, you don’t have to actually return to that place — or to that route or problem — just whip out your photo album.
But if you don’t revisit a place regularly, you will miss out on developing valuable things that only come due to repeat visits, such as place attachment,49 nostalgia50 and friendships with other regular visitors.51 You risk being, as Dan Varian puts it, “like a pebble skimming across the surface”, i.e. moving on rock but never experiencing depth.52
Billy No Mates 🚨
And, as previously mentioned, Wu et al (2025) find that filming your experiences reduces other people’s desire to hang out with you in future. This has obvious implications for friendship quality, but also negatively impacts group formation and maintenance.
Filming yourself climbing reduces the likelihood of climbing in the same places again, and climbing with the same people again.
Part IV: Changing Yourself
So far, we have observed how the experiencing self is distracted by imagining the audience’s gaze, and how reviewing video footage shifts memory to a third-person perspective. Could this lead to a fundamental shift in your self-understanding, where you internalise an external observer’s perspective on your own body?
Self-Objectification: I Am A Thing For Others To See 🚨
Self-objectification describes exactly this. It is the condition of internalising others’ view points, and thereby displace your first-person perspective as the locus of sensory experience and agency: you understand yourself as an object for others to see. Several studies have shown that taking selfies is associated with higher levels of self-objectification.53 Worse still, those who self-objectify are then more likely to take selfies, leading to a vicious cycle of worsening self-objectification.54
Self-objectification is bad in itself, but it is also associated with many other negative outcomes, such as depression, anxiety and lower self-esteem. But there are several other downsides to self-objectification that are of particular relevance to rock climbers.
Firstly, self-objectification is associated with disordered eating,55 muscle dysmorphia56 and the objectification of others.57 It is also associated with an impaired ability to recognise bodies in configural, human-like ways — instead it leads to understanding bodies as collections of body parts.58 Other climbers become their steel fingers, their ape-index and their strength-to-weight ratio.
Secondly, self-objectification impairs cognitive performance,59 motor performance,60 task-performance,61 and introceptive awareness.62 This is clearly detrimental, especially for those who think the end-goal of climbing is optimised performance.
Finally, high levels of self-objectification impedes athletes from entering the flow state.63 For some climbing philosophers, the flow state is partly what makes climbing a profound practice,64 and so being unable to experience flow would impair much of climbing’s intrinsic value.
Recording photos and videos can cause you to self-objectify, which compromises performance and experiential quality.
Self-Instrumentalisation: Climbing For The Pics🚨
When a camera is introduced to climbing, the act of recording often transitions from a secondary byproduct into the primary goal. This represents what John Gill calls an extrinsic "outer goal" that competes with the intrinsic "inner goal" of experiencing the rock.65 What starts as a matter of split attention can lead to a profound shift in motivation. Psychological research into the overjustification effect,66 goal displacement,67 and motivation crowding68 demonstrates how such external rewards can systematically obliterate the value inherent in an activity.
In extreme cases, this displacement leads to self-instrumentalisation: where we cease to be the protagonists of our own lives and instead see ourselves as tools.69 This shift is most palpable when a successful climb is experienced as a failure simply because it went unrecorded. By “doing it for the Gram” or falling into a habit of recording every ascent, we begin to reconceptualise ourselves as photograph-making-machines — entities who climb in order to produce digital output. In doing so, we fundamentally alter the nature of both our experiencing and remembering selves. We become the living proof of Susan Sontag’s warning: that today, “everything exists to end in a photograph.”70
When recording becomes the primary goal, the climb ceases to be a meaningful encounter and instead becomes a production process — we stop climbing for the rock and start climbing for the footage.
Mitigation Strategies
So filming and photographing yourself has negative impact on your experiences, memories, future and self-understanding.
But what if you still want to take a few photos here and there?
Can the risks be mitigated?
Caring for the Experiencing Self
Always think about your experiencing self before pulling out the camera. Think “will I disrupt this event?”
Think “do I need a memento of this moment, or should I savour the moment?”
Think “is it more important to inhabit this moment than risk disrupting it?”
Caring for the Remembering Self
Don’t include yourself in any recordings.
Avoid looking at photos and videos of you climbing at all costs, you risk replacing your memory of the climbing with the recordings. Just don’t do it.
If You Must Record Something
Fully savour the experience, then pull out the camera if you still feel you still need to.
Choose a photo over a video.
Make artistic or beautiful recordings, not mere slop.
Take the photos mindfully.
Use a proper camera, not a smartphone.
If you must film, use a wearable camera that does not require operation and films from the first-person perspective.
If you must record yourself, do so when other people aren't sharing the experience with you.
As soon as you step off the wall and stop the recording, perform a sensory scan. Ask: How did that texture feel? How did my body feel under tension? This pulls your consciousness back into the subjective body before you see the objective body on screen.
If you find yourself recording clips just to see how you look, delete them immediately.
Never post records of yourself climbing to social media. Maintain dark horse ethics.
The Tragedy of the Pro-Climber
The professional climber cannot stop filming themselves climbing. They need records of their climbs in order to make a living. In the age of social media this means they need to record nearly everything that they do.
Their job allows them to climb much more frequently than an amateur climber. But at what price? Their experiencing self is compromised by the presence of the camera, their sensory first-person memories will be constantly dominated or replaced by the recordings, and the constant need to think about their audience means they are at risk of self-objectification and self-instrumentalisation.
So while professional climbers achieve lots of movement on rock, the constant presence of the camera means they are rarely able to fully be there in the moment, in their memories, or in their selves. Becoming a professional climber is a Faustian bargain. As David Roberts — himself a professional climber — summarised:
Climbing is not an act that can be carried on publicly without considerable compromise. It is a deep experience precisely because it tends to pare the superficial. On one’s best climbs, one goes through long, squirmy moments of fear and doubt. Only a narcissist could enjoy a movie of himself at such moments. […] The difference between private and public climbing is like the difference between the act of love and a pornographic film.71
The Salience Paradox
Photos and videos can be monetised, and they are entertaining for others to watch. This means there is always going to be a financial and status incentives associated with making recordings of your climbing.
Those who abstain from recording their climbs in order to preserve their experiences and memories are going to be absent from social media, and so have limited ability to influence others at scale.
As such, we are in a situation where the existence of camera technology and social media means we are in a permanent state where self-filming is seen as totally normal. In the words of David Roberts there is an “anthropological irreversibility about climbing’s drift toward entertainment.”72
Everyone is Now A Pro: Full-Spectrum Tragedy
The consequence of all this is that large numbers of people now record themselves climbing. Many do so just because 1) it is the done thing and 2) high-status pro-climbers do it, so it must be cool to do it. These climbers end up compromising their climbing lives without even receiving the other side of the Faustian bargain: there is no money or fame for them to gain, just pure downside. The tragedy of the pro-climber has thereby spread to the entire climbing world like a virus. Now a large proportion of the climbing world ultimately isn't inhabiting their own climbing lives, which are instead being hollowed-out by the ever-present lens.
Chipping Your Experience: Ethics of Care
So what can we do?
We need to be caretakers of our climbing experiences, memories, and selves, in a way not dissimilar to how we act as caretakers for the rock.
We don’t chip holds, we don’t cover ancient rocks with tick marks, we don’t carve our names into them, we don’t climb on wet sandstone. We have ethics which preserve the rock.
So too we require ethics to preserve our experiences, memories, futures and selves.
Firstly, you can influence other climbers you know by personally maintaining a consistent anti-recording ethic and being able to mount a clear and robust defence of why this ethic is important to you.
Secondly, when you see someone posting their sick send, one should feel empathetic to the loss they will have experienced by producing the video. So do not encourage others to film, do not like videos, especially those of people who film every single send, and have likely forgotten what climbing was like before they started filming themselves. Reinforcing these norms is unethical in itself, akin to encouraging others into chipping.
Ultimately, we need to construct a social obligation similar to pointing out a fellow climber’s half-done-up knot, or unhesitatingly spotting another climber as they’re climbing over a risky landing. We need to look out for each other’s climbing lives, not just our own.
The Tip of the Iceberg
The camera is perhaps the most obvious way to disrupt your climbing experience and memories. It is certainly the tool which has the most scientific evidence base indicating its potential to mangle your climbing life.
But other technologies are more subtle, and the true cost of them may never be quantified by science. Could it be that bolts alter your experience? Might guidebooks affect your memory? Do portable fans affect your future? Is your logbook affecting self-understanding? And have grades replaced your intrinsic motivation for climbing?
So whenever you adopt a tool or choose an ethic, always keep your experiencing and remembering selves in mind, and always apply Irving’s test:
Will this excite wonder, and will it survive the test of time?
Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End. Psychological Science.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Kahneman, D. (1993). Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Redelmeier, D. A., & Kahneman, D. (1996). Patients’ memories of painful medical treatments: real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive procedures. Pain.
Kahneman, D., Wakker, P. P., & Sarin, R. (1997). Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility. The Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Redelmeier, D. A., Katz, J., & Kahneman, D. (2003). Memories of colonoscopy: a randomized trial. Pain.
Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: two perspectives on life. In The Science of Well-Being.
See also:
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., & Oishi, S. (2001). End Effects of Rated Life Quality: The James Dean Effect. Psychological Science.
Wirtz, D., Kruger, J., Scollon, C. N., & Diener, E. (2003). What to do on Spring Break? The role of predicted, on-line, and remembered experience in future choice. Psychological Science.
Do, A. M., Rupert, A. V., & Wolford, G. (2008). Evaluations of pleasurable experiences: The peak-end rule. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Zenko, Z., Ekkekakis, P., & Ariely, D. (2016). Can You Have Your Vigorous Exercise and Enjoy It Too? Ramping Intensity Down Increases Postexercise, Remembered, and Forecasted Pleasure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Bastos, V., Ekkekakis, P., Andrade, A. J., & Teixeira, D. S. (2025). The peak and end rule, affect-related cognitions, enjoyment, and exercise frequency: A randomized controlled trial ancillary study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
Quoted in Sanzaro, F. (2025). The Zen of the Wild. Saraband. Pages 41—2.
Denman, E. (1954). Alone to Everest. Collins. Page 62.
Irving, R. L. G. (1947). The Mountains Shall Bring Peace. Blackwell. Page 8.
Omodei, M. M., & McLennan, J. (1994). Studying Complex Decision Making in Natural Settings: Using a Head-Mounted Video Camera to Study Competitive Orienteering. Perceptual and Motor Skills.
Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic Memory: The Effects of Volitional Photo Taking on Memory for Visual and Auditory Aspects of an Experience. Psychological Science.
Diehl, K., & Zauberman, G. (2022). Capturing life or missing it: How mindful photo-taking can affect experiences. Current Opinion in Psychology.
Henkel, L. A., & Milliken, A. (2020). The benefits and costs of editing and reviewing photos of one’s experiences on subsequent memory. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Finley, J. R., & Brewer, W. F. (2024). Accuracy and completeness of autobiographical memory: evidence from a wearable camera study. Memory, 32(8), 1012–1042.
Zhang, T., Kim, T., Brooks, A. W., Gino, F., & Norton, M. I. (2014). A “Present” for the Future. Psychological Science.
Lee, J. C., Cui, Y. (Gina), Kim, J., Seo, Y., & Chon, H. (2020). Photo Taking Paradox: Contrasting Effects of Photo Taking on Travel Satisfaction and Revisit Intention. Journal of Travel Research.
Dijkstra, K., Pekaar, K., Hooftman, J., & van Osch, Y. (2022). The Role of Photographs and Time Lag on Positivity Ratings of Vacation and Weekend Memories. Journal of Psychological Research.
Gillet, S., Schmitz, P., & Mitas, O. (2013). The Snap-Happy Tourist: The Effects of Photographing Behavior on Tourists’ Happiness. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.
Kurtz., J. L. (2015). Seeing through New Eyes: An Experimental Investigation of the Benefits of Photography. Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences.
Barasch, A., Zauberman, G., & Diehl, K. (2018). How the Intention to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment: Photo-Taking Goals and Evaluation of Experiences. Journal of Consumer Research.
Diehl, K., & Zauberman, G. (2022). Capturing life or missing it: How mindful photo-taking can affect experiences. Current Opinion in Psychology.
Diehl, K., Zauberman, G., & Barasch, A. (2016). How taking photos increases enjoyment of experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Nardini, G., Lutz, R. J., & LeBoeuf, R. A. (2019). How and when taking pictures undermines the enjoyment of experiences. Psychology & Marketing.
Results investigating the relationship between emotional affect and selfie-taking are mixed, with some studies finding positive effects, and others negative effects.
Chen, Y., Mark, G., & Ali, S. (2016). Promoting Positive Affect through Smartphone Photography. Psychology of Well-Being.
Mills, J. S., Musto, S., Williams, L., & Tiggemann, M. (2018). “Selfie” harm: Effects on mood and body image in young women. Body Image.
Fox, J., Vendemia, M. A., Smith, M. A., & Brehm, N. R. (2021). Effects of taking selfies on women’s self-objectification, mood, self-esteem, and social aggression toward female peers. Body Image.
At 9:33 here.
See also: Diehl, K., & Zauberman, G. (2022). Capturing life or missing it: How mindful photo-taking can affect experiences. Current Opinion in Psychology.
Barasch, A., Zauberman, G., & Diehl, K. (2018). How the Intention to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment: Photo-Taking Goals and Evaluation of Experiences. Journal of Consumer Research.
Richards, C. (2011). The Desert of the Almost-Real. Alpinist.
Mols, I., Broekhuijsen, M., van den Hoven, E., Markopoulos, P., & Eggen, B. (2015). Do We Ruin the Moment? Exploring the Design of Novel Capturing Technologies. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction.
See also: Tamir, D. I., Templeton, E. M., Ward, A. F., & Zaki, J. (2018). Media usage diminishes memory for experiences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Niforatos, E., Cinel, C., Mack, C. C., Langheinrich, M., & Ward, G. (2017). Can Less be More? Contrasting Limited, Unlimited, and Automatic Picture Capture for Augmenting Memory Recall. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.
See also: Wang, C., Li, X., & Jin, H. (2025). Photograph taking in the classroom impairs memory of learned material. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal.
Braun, S., Croes, M., Vaitkunaite, R., & Verheyen, S. (2024). Does Taking Photographs Impair Your Memory? The Role of Attentional Disengagement. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Flaherty, G. T., & Choi, J. (2016). The ‘selfie’ phenomenon: reducing the risk of harm while using smartphones during international travel. Journal of Travel Medicine.
Weiler, B., Gstaettner, A. M., & Scherrer, P. (2021). Selfies to die for: A review of research on self-photography associated with injury/death in tourism and recreation. Tourism Management Perspectives.
Linares, M., Santos, L., Santos, J., Juesas, C., Górgolas, M., & Ramos-Rincón, J.-M. (2021). Selfie-related deaths using web epidemiological intelligence tool (2008–2021): a cross-sectional study. Journal of Travel Medicine.
Hutchinson, L. A., Brown, M. J., Deluzio, K. J., & De Asha, A. R. (2019). Self-Selected walking speed increases when individuals are aware of being recorded. Gait & Posture.
Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2001). On the fragility of skilled performance: What governs choking under pressure? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
See also:
Mesagno, C., Harvey, J. T., & Janelle, C. M. (2011). Self-Presentation Origins of Choking: Evidence From Separate Pressure Manipulations. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Sutskova, O., Senju, A., & Smith, T. J. (2023). Cognitive Impact of Social Virtual Reality: Audience and Mere Presence Effect of Virtual Companions. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies.
Wu, F., Durso, G. R. O., & Haws, K. L. (2025). How to Lose Friends and Influence No One: The Documenting Penalty in Experiential Consumption. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.
Seymour, K., McNicoll, J., & Koenig-Robert, R. (2024). Big brother: the effects of surveillance on fundamental aspects of social vision. Neuroscience of Consciousness.
Field, T., & Ignatoff, E. (1981). Videotaping effects on the behaviors of low income mothers and their infants during floor-play interactions. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
van Rompay, T. J. L., Vonk, D. J., & Fransen, M. L. (2008). The Eye of the Camera: Effects of Security Cameras on Prosocial Behavior. Environment and Behavior.
van Bommel, M., van Prooijen, J.-W., Elffers, H., & van Lange, P. A. M. (2013). Intervene to be Seen: The Power of a Camera in Attenuating the Bystander Effect. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Praetorius, A.-K., McIntyre, N. A., & Klassen, R. M. (2017). Reactivity effects in video-based classroom research: an investigation using teacher and student questionnaires as well as teacher eye-tracking. Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft.
Alharbi, R., Stump, T., Vafaie, N., Pfammatter, A., Spring, B., & Alshurafa, N. (2018). I Can’t Be Myself: Effects of Wearable Cameras on the Capture of Authentic Behavior in the Wild. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.
Bergström, H., Larsson, L.-G., & Stenberg, E. (2018). Audio-video recording during laparoscopic surgery reduces irrelevant conversation between surgeons: a cohort study. BMC Surgery.
Sai, L., Bi, Y., Yu, C., & Ding, X. P. (2023). The power of the lens: Filming increases honesty in children as young as five. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.
Gaudreau, C., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2022). What’s in a distraction? The effect of parental cell phone use on parents’ and children’s question-asking. Developmental Psychology.
Mikhelson, M., Luong, A., Etz, A., Micheletti, M., Khante, P., & de Barbaro, K. (2024). Mothers speak less to infants during detected real‐world phone use. Child Development.
Dwyer, R. J., Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2018). Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Barrick, E. M., Barasch, A., & Tamir, D. I. (2022). The unexpected social consequences of diverting attention to our phones. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Leitao, M. R., Proulx, J. D. E., & Kushlev, K. (2024). Smartphones undermine social connectedness more in men than women: A mini mega-analysis. Technology, Mind, and Behavior.
Heyman, J. L., & Human, L. J. (2024). Phone presence and relationship quality: Examining the role of emotion accuracy and bias. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2019). Smartphones distract parents from cultivating feelings of connection when spending time with their children. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Henkel, L. A. (2013). Point-and-Shoot Memories: The Influence of Taking Photos on Memory for a Museum Tour. Psychological Science.
Tamir, D. I., Templeton, E. M., Ward, A. F., & Zaki, J. (2018). Media usage diminishes memory for experiences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Lurie, R., Fabrizio, S. P., & Westerman, D. L. (2025). The cost of saving: How photos and screenshots impair memory. Memory & Cognition.
However see: Braun, S., Croes, M., Vaitkunaite, R., & Verheyen, S. (2024). Does Taking Photographs Impair Your Memory? The Role of Attentional Disengagement. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Say, S., Akbulut, S., & Öztürk, İ. Y. (2025). Capturing the Experience: How Digital Media Affects Memory Retention in Museum Education. Behavioral Sciences.
Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016). Cognitive Offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Soares, J. S., & Storm, B. C. (2018). Forget in a flash: A further investigation of the photo-taking-impairment effect. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Lurie, R., & Westerman, D. L. (2021). Photo-taking impairs memory on perceptual and conceptual memory tests. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic Memory: The Effects of Volitional Photo Taking on Memory for Visual and Auditory Aspects of an Experience. Psychological Science.
Peper, P., & Ball, B. H. (2025). Great expectations: Anticipating a reminder influences prospective memory encoding and unaided retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Say, S., Akbulut, S., & Öztürk, İ. Y. (2025). Capturing the Experience: How Digital Media Affects Memory Retention in Museum Education. Behavioral Sciences.
Soares, J. S., & Storm, B. C. (2022). Does taking multiple photos lead to a photo-taking-impairment effect? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Niforatos, E., Cinel, C., Mack, C. C., Langheinrich, M., & Ward, G. (2017). Can Less be More? Contrasting Limited, Unlimited, and Automatic Picture Capture for Augmenting Memory Recall. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.
Scott, D. (2015). Up And About. Vertebrate. Pages 378—9.
Marcotti, P., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2017). Shifting visual perspective during memory retrieval reduces the accuracy of subsequent memories. Memory.
Foley, M. A. (2020). Effects of Photographic Reviews on Recollections of the Personal Past: A New Perspective on Benefits and Costs. Review of General Psychology.
Marcotti, P., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2021). Third-person perspectives in photographs influence visual and spatial perspectives during subsequent memory retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Psychology.
King, C. I., Panjwani, A. A., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2024). When having photographs of events influences the visual perspective of autobiographical memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology.
St. Jacques, P. L. (2024). Perspective matters: When visual perspective reshapes autobiographical memories. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Diehl, K., Barasch, A., Ko, M., & Zauberman, G. (2025). Captured memories: The impact of first-person versus third-person viewpoint photographs on remembering personal experiences. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Marcotti, P., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2021). Third-person perspectives in photographs influence visual and spatial perspectives during subsequent memory retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Psychology.
Diehl, K., Barasch, A., Ko, M., & Zauberman, G. (2025). Captured memories: The impact of first-person versus third-person viewpoint photographs on remembering personal experiences. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Vasquez, A. N., Dockery, S. J., Karanian, J. M., Wang, Q., & Stone, C. B. (2025). Sharing photographs on social media enhances recollection of photograph-related details. Memory, Mind & Media.
Niese, Z. A., Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2023). Picturing Your Life: The Role of Imagery Perspective in Personal Photos. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Diehl, K., Barasch, A., Ko, M., & Zauberman, G. (2025). Captured memories: The impact of first-person versus third-person viewpoint photographs on remembering personal experiences. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Marcotti, P., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2021). Third-person perspectives in photographs influence visual and spatial perspectives during subsequent memory retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Psychology.
Küçüktaş, S., & St Jacques, P. L. (2022). How shifting visual perspective during autobiographical memory retrieval influences emotion: A change in retrieval orientation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
King, C. I., Panjwani, A. A., & St. Jacques, P. L. (2024). When having photographs of events influences the visual perspective of autobiographical memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology.
Vasquez, A. N., Dockery, S. J., Karanian, J. M., Wang, Q., & Stone, C. B. (2025). Sharing photographs on social media enhances recollection of photograph-related details. Memory, Mind & Media.
Lee, J. C., Cui, Y. (G.), Kim, J., Seo, Y., & Chon, H. (2021). Photo taking paradox: Contrasting effects of photo taking on travel satisfaction and revisit intention. Journal of Travel Research.
Jeong, H., Wang, C., & Suri, R. (2023). Let me take a #selfie #variety: How consumer selfie affects variety seeking. Psychology & Marketing.
See also: McKee, L. G., Algoe, S. B., Faro, A. L., O’Leary, J. L., & O’Neal, C. W. (2019). Picture This! Bringing joy into Focus and Developing Healthy Habits of Mind: Rationale, design, and implementation of a randomized control trial for young adults. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications.
Hammitt, W. E., Backlund, E. A., & Bixler, R. D. (2004). Experience Use History, Place Bonding and Resource Substitution of Trout Anglers During Recreation Engagements. Journal of Leisure Research.
Smaldone, D., Harris, C., & Sanyal, N. (2008). The Role of Time in Developing Place Meanings. Journal of Leisure Research.
White, D. D., Virden, R. J., & van Riper, C. J. (2008). Effects of Place Identity, Place Dependence, and Experience-Use History on Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in a Natural Setting. Environmental Management.
Cardinale, S., Nguyen, B., & Melewar, T. (2016). Place-based brand experience, place attachment and loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Plunkett, D., Fulthorp, K., & Paris, C. M. (2019). Examining the relationship between place attachment and behavioral loyalty in an urban park setting. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism.
Rushing, J. R., Needham, M. D., D’Antonio, A., & Metcalf, E. C. (2019). Barriers to attachment? Relationships among constraints, attachment, and visitation to urban parks. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism.
Jian, Y., Lin, J., & Zhou, Z. (2021). The role of travel constraints in shaping nostalgia, destination attachment and revisit intentions and the moderating effect of prevention regulatory focus. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management.
Hall, J. A. (2019). How many hours does it take to make a friend? Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Sprecher, S. (2022). Acquaintanceships (weak ties): Their role in people’s web of relationships and their formation. Personal Relationships.
Fingerman, K. L., Birditt, K. S., Fiori, K. L., Hall, J., Huxhold, O., Rauer, A., Sandstrom, G. M., & Sprecher, S. (2025). More than an Acquaintance less than a Friend: Fringeships in Everyday Life. Review of General Psychology.
Zheng, D., Ni, X., & Luo, Y. (2018). Selfie Posting on Social Networking Sites and Female Adolescents’ Self-Objectification: The Moderating Role of Imaginary Audience Ideation. Sex Roles.
Boursier, V., Gioia, F., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Selfie-engagement on social media: Pathological narcissism, positive expectation, and body objectification – Which is more influential? Addictive Behaviors Reports.
Caso, D., Schettino, G., Fabbricatore, R., & Conner, M. (2020). “Change my selfie”: Relationships between self‐objectification and selfie‐behavior in young Italian women. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Salomon, I., & Brown, C. S. (2020). That selfie becomes you: examining taking and posting selfies as forms of self-objectification. Media Psychology.
Fox, J., Vendemia, M. A., Smith, M. A., & Brehm, N. R. (2021). Effects of taking selfies on women’s self-objectification, mood, self-esteem, and social aggression toward female peers. Body Image.
Wang, Y., Xie, X., Fardouly, J., Vartanian, L. R., & Lei, L. (2019). The longitudinal and reciprocal relationships between selfie-related behaviors and self-objectification and appearance concerns among adolescents. New Media & Society.
Veldhuis, J., Alleva, J. M., Bij de Vaate, A. J. D. (Nadia), Keijer, M., & Konijn, E. A. (2020). Me, my selfie, and I: The relations between selfie behaviors, body image, self-objectification, and self-esteem in young women. Psychology of Popular Media.
Schaefer, L. M., & Thompson, J. K. (2018). Self‐objectification and disordered eating: A meta‐analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders.
Hu, Y., Pan, Y., Yue, L., & Gao, X. (2024). Self-objectification and eating disorders: the psychopathological and neural processes from psychological distortion to psychosomatic illness. Psychoradiology.
Grieve, R., & Helmick, A. (2008). The Influence of Men’s Self-Objectification on the Drive for Muscularity: Self-Esteem, Body Satisfaction and Muscle Dysmorphia. International Journal of Men’s Health.
Heath, B., Tod, D. A., Kannis-Dymand, L., & Lovell, G. P. (2016). The relationship between objectification theory and muscle dysmorphia characteristics in men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity.
Strelan, P., & Hargreaves, D. (2005). Women Who Objectify Other Women: The Vicious Circle of Objectification? Sex Roles.
Zurbriggen, E. L., Ramsey, L. R., & Jaworski, B. K. (2011). Self- and Partner-objectification in Romantic Relationships: Associations with Media Consumption and Relationship Satisfaction. Sex Roles.
Bernard, P., Gervais, S., Allen, J., Campomizzi, S., & Klein, O. (2015). Body parts reduction and self-objectification in the objectification of sexualized bodies. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 28(1), 39–61.
Winn, L., & Cornelius, R. (2020). Self-Objectification and Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Frontiers in Psychology.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Harrison, K. (2005). Throwing Like a Girl: Self-Objectification Predicts Adolescent Girls’ Motor Performance. Journal of Sport and Social Issues.
Baldissarri, C., & Andrighetto, L. (2021). Being Treated as an Instrument: Consequences of Instrumental Treatment and Self-Objectification on Task Engagement and Performance. Human Performance.
Naraindas, A. M., McInerney, A., Deschênes, S., & Cooney, S. M. (2025). Differences in the relationships between interoceptive sensibility and self-objectification in women with high and low body dissatisfaction: A network analysis. PLOS One.
Greenleaf, C. (2005). Self-Objectification Among Physically Active Women. Sex Roles.
Embacher Martin, K. (2019). My Mind on My Body and My Body on My Mind: Examining the Effect of Self-Objectification on Exercise Flow and Enjoyment for Young Women. PhD Thesis.
Erkmen Hadi, G., & Yılmaz, T. (2025). Examining the Relationship Between Dispositional Flow State, Objectified Body Consciousness, and Leisure Satisfaction Among Sports Center Members. Perceptual and Motor Skills.
Embacher-Martin, K., & McGloin, R. (2025). Can’t go with the flow: Self-objectification, body surveillance, and exercise flow state for young women in college. Journal of American College Health.
Gill, J. (1979). Bouldering: A Mystical Art Form. In The Mountain Sprit.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Page 54.
Nguyen, C. T. (2017). The Aesthetics of Rock Climbing. The Philosophers’ Magazine.
Nguyen, C. T. (2025). The Score: How to Stop Playing Someone Else’s Game. Allen Lane. Page 15.
Gill, J. (1979). Bouldering: A Mystical Art Form. In The Mountain Sprit.
Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Greene, D., & Lepper, M. R. (1974). Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Children’s Subsequent Intrinsic Interest. Child Development.
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin.
Murayama, K., Matsumoto, M., Izuma, K., & Matsumoto, K. (2010). Neural basis of the undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds. Motivation Science.
Ayabe, H., Koike, T., Yoshioka, A., Izuno, S., Ogasawara, K., Tsuchimoto, S., & Sadato, N. (2026). Beyond the undermining effect: Extrinsic rewards preserve neural intrinsic reward. Behavioural Brain Research.
Ordóñez, L. D., Schweitzer, M. E., Galinsky, A. D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting. Academy of Management Perspectives.
Etkin, J., & Memmi, S. A. (2020). Goal Conflict Encourages Work and Discourages Leisure. Journal of Consumer Research.
Frey, B. S., & Jegen, R. (2001). Motivation Crowding Theory. Journal of Economic Surveys.
Mellström, C., & Johannesson, M. (2008). Crowding Out in Blood Donation: Was Titmuss Right? Journal of the European Economic Association.
Georgellis, Y., Iossa, E., & Tabvuma, V. (2010). Crowding Out Intrinsic Motivation in the Public Sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
Stazyk, E. C. (2012). Crowding Out Public Service Motivation? Comparing Theoretical Expectations with Empirical Findings on the Influence of Performance-Related Pay. Review of Public Personnel Administration.
Chao, M. (2017). Demotivating incentives and motivation crowding out in charitable giving. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ling, M., Xu, L., & Yang, H. (2023). The crowding out effect of financial incentives on conformity to pro-environmental social norms: a quasi-experiment on household recycling. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
Han, B-C. (2015). The Burnout Society. Stanford Briefs.
Baldissarri, C., & Andrighetto, L. (2021). Being Treated as an Instrument: Consequences of Instrumental Treatment and Self-Objectification on Task Engagement and Performance. Human Performance.
Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Page 24.
Roberts, D. (1984/1986). The Public Climber: A Reactionary Rumination. In Moments of Doubt. The Mountaineers. Page 227.
Marko Prezelj is quoted as saying something similar.
NB: Sexting — taking sexually explicit photographs and sending them to others — is also associated with self-objectification.
Speno, A. G., & Aubrey, J. S. (2018). Adolescent Sexting: The Roles of Self-Objectification and Internalization of Media Ideals. Psychology of Women Quarterly.
Roberts, D. (1984/1986). The Public Climber: A Reactionary Rumination. In Moments of Doubt. The Mountaineers. Page 227.
As per the below comments, this is another great essay introducing me to and giving name to many enlightening concepts I would like to learn more about! From first read (and this is definitely an over simplification using popular culture) the central theme of this essay reminds me of the magpie scene from the Detectorists (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU18QVfzFDc): Lance tries to take a photo of his unearthed gold coin, even trying to recreate the moment, only for it to be stolen by a magpie, with the writers presumably symbolising that Lance, through trying to even take a photo and announce his experience to Andy, sets himself up to steal his own joy.
Knowing the author, I do wonder if a adding a note on their own personal experiences could be beneficial and whether their essays have changed their own climbing habits or how they reflect on their previous ones (this could be especially insightful for other friends as well). For example, when I first met him, I started following the author's YouTube channel and was inspired to potentially one day try the climbs he had recorded him or his partner trying &/or sending in said videos. I would indeed like to invite the author to reflect on this: do you now see having made climbing videos as having eroded your intrinsic experience and memory of them (like the comment from Post Scarcity Investments), do you feel maybe your own views have changed with the essays you've written, or do you see that there were some positives to making videos as well in the sense that they can be inspiring for others?
(NB I hope this comment is not read as a criticism &/or an accusation of hypocrisy, rather a musing that could add further depth and endearment to the author's strong arguments).
I’ve noticed lots of these points over the last 3 years I’ve been climbing — one minute I’m ’really climbing’ and then all of a sudden I’m repeating it for the camera.
That being said, recently I have found myself a lot more present (and therefore am spending more time climbing in the ‘perfect flow’, really experiencing and feeling instead of just getting to the top), and in being in such a state I’ve found the occasions that I do record aren’t affecting me whatsoever.
I wonder if this is something that can be balanced, or if I should be questioning the need I sometimes feel to film - what’s the point of me recording at all? To share with people? Maybe if I had a message to share it would be of at least some value?