With digital photos and selfies becoming a part of our daily lives, most of us cannot imagine a life without cell phones or digital cameras. Taking photos, selfies, or even "groupfies" has become a common habit and almost a reflex action for most people. People like to capture every single moment of their lives—even if it is something as mundane as buying groceries or eating a meal—and share it on social media. And all this has become possible due to advancements in digital technology.
Digitalization of photographs has saved people from the anticipation of waiting from the moment of clicking a picture to actually seeing and holding its printed copy. Imagine taking a picture and waiting for days to "develop" it! The process would leave people wondering about the outcome. It was only when people actually saw the printed pictures that they would know if someone's head had got cut out, or someone got left out fully or partially, or the picture turned out to be out of focus. Thanks to digital technology, people can now see the captured moments of their lives instantly, and just take another one in case the picture turns out hazy or out of focus.
But do all these pictures, especially those of our mundane moments, hold any importance or value to us? Are we doing it just to keep ourselves visible on social platforms? This constant recording of our experiences in photographs has become something of an obsession for many. And the tons of pictures shared virtually often end up lost in the cacophony of the digital world.
To capture the perfect digital picture, we often click many more unwanted ones. These unwanted ones rarely get deleted. They just stay there, taking up space on our phone's or camera's ever-growing photo collection. It then becomes a Herculean task to search out that one meaningful picture out of the hundreds of pictures saved.
Earlier, due to the two restraints of limited photos per roll and the cost of developing and printing, people would click fewer but more meaningful pictures. Also, the joy of holding a photo album and going through something tangible, touching and feeling each photo, and thus revisiting old memories, cannot be compared to the rather tedious experience of viewing digital photos by swiping left and right on a screen or sorting through hundreds of files on a storage disk.
3
What is the counterclaim in the passage?
A.
Though digitalization is used by everyone, the older generation still prefers going through photo albums that can be felt and touched.
B.
Though digitalization has saved people's time, digital photos are not tangible and hence cannot be used to go through old memories.
C.
Though digitalization has enabled instant pictures, the practice of recording every moment has led to a loss of meaningful pictures.
D.
Though digitalization leads to faster pictures, it also leads to an increase in unwanted copies of the same picture.
1 answer
The counterclaim in the passage is:
C. Though digitalization has enabled instant pictures, the practice of recording every moment has led to a loss of meaningful pictures.
This statement presents a counterpoint to the notion that digital technology has improved the experience of photography, suggesting instead that the overwhelming volume of digital images may diminish the significance of those pictures.
