Everyone Becomes a Tour Guide Version of Themselves

You can usually spot the exact moment people stop looking at a place and start looking at themselves inside it.

Churches are good for this.

Nobody walks up to somewhere like St Paul’s quietly anymore. There’s always a little performance first. The phone comes out before the feeling does. You see people adjusting themselves by a few inches like they’re trying to look accidental on purpose.

The strange thing is most people aren’t even vain about it. Not properly. It’s more anxious than vain.

They just want proof they existed in front of something important.

What interests me now is how quickly people react to the screen version of themselves. Sometimes before the photo’s even been taken properly. Real life almost feels secondary for a second. Like the phone gets first approval.

The couple here seemed comfortable with each other though. No dramatic posing. No influencer energy. Just two people doing the same thing millions of people do every day without really thinking about it.

Behind them you’ve got this massive building that took decades to construct, survived wars, fires, history, all of it.

Everyone does it.

Including the people pretending they’re above it. Especially them, actually. They just do it in black roll neck jumpers while pretending not to care.

That’s the interesting part now. Not the phones. Not social media. Just how quickly human beings adapt to performing themselves in public. Most people can switch from private person to public version in under two seconds now. You see it happen physically. The face changes first.

Then the posture. Then the voice slightly. Like watching somebody step into customer service mode for an invisible audience.

You notice it more when you walk around with a camera because people assume photography is about images when it’s mostly about behaviour. The camera just gives you an excuse to stare at things longer than society normally allows without getting reported.

And once you start noticing these little performances, you can’t really stop.

Couples rehearsing affection.

Friends pretending to have more fun than they actually are.

People standing in front of expensive shops trying to look like they belong near them.

Tourists photographing meals they barely touch.

Men suddenly deepening their voice when another man walks past.

Tiny status negotiations happening constantly in public like pigeons fighting over chips.

Most of it isn’t conscious.

That’s why it’s interesting.

The couple in this photo probably just wanted a nice memory of the day. That’s all. Completely normal.

Still felt oddly revealing though.