The Way We Live Now Sontag

Picture this: It’s 2005, and you’re scrolling through endless photos of someone’s brunch. That’s the world Susan Sontag warned us about, but she called it The Way We Live Now—a phrase she borrowed to describe a culture drowning in images. She didn’t live to see Instagram, but boy, did she nail it.

Sontag’s crystal ball was terrifyingly accurate.

She argued that we’re addicted to photographs the way a toddler is addicted to sugar: we think it’s satisfying, but it just makes us cranky and hungry for more. In her famous 1977 essay, she said photos “give us the illusion of control” over reality. Yeah, right—like that filtered selfie gives you control over your Monday morning.

Here’s the funny part: Sontag thought photography numbs us to suffering. She wrote that staring at war photos makes us feel righteous without actually helping. It’s like saying “thoughts and prayers” but with a double tap.

She also predicted the death of mystery.

Once we photograph everything, nothing feels sacred. Your grandma’s secret cookie recipe? Insta-story. A total eclipse? Here’s 400 people’s views of it, all slightly blurry. Sontag called this “aesthetic consumerism”—you’re not experiencing the thing; you’re just curating a memory of it.

And she’d hate your vacation slideshow. Actually, she’d probably write a 200-page essay about why your vacation slideshow is a symptom of moral decay. Then she’d smoke a cigarette and look annoyed.

The Way We Live Now -- inscribed by Sontag by Susan & Howard Hodgkin

But wait—she wasn’t a total buzzkill.

Sontag believed photography could wake us up if we used it wisely. She loved the idea of a single, shocking image that changes history (like the “Napalm Girl” photo from Vietnam). That’s the exception, not the rule. For every iconic war photo, we get a million pictures of cats in bow ties.

The surprising fact? Sontag changed her own mind later in life. In her 2003 book Regarding the Pain of Others, she admitted that maybe, just maybe, constant images of war can make people care more instead of less. But she still hated how we use photos as emotional airbags—cushioning us from feeling the real crash.

So what does this mean for you, scrolling this article?

Next time you snap a photo of your weird-looking sandwich, ask yourself: Am I capturing the moment, or am I hiding from it? Sontag would say you’re probably hiding. But she’d also say, “Go ahead—just don’t pretend it’s profound.”

The Way We Live Now by Susan Sontag [Short-Story: Audio-book] - YouTube

In a 2024 world where we take more photos in a day than an 1800s person took in a lifetime, her critique feels like a friendly slap. She’d laugh at how we use #nofilter on heavily edited shots. She’d weep at the 24/7 news loops. And she’d definitely make a joke about the irony of taking a selfie at a protest.

End quote: “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.” Translation: You’re a digital Robin Hood, stealing moments and calling them yours. Sontag would’ve loved TikTok for the chaos, but she’d have written a book titled Why Your 10-Second Dance Video Is Actually a Cry for Help.

So here’s the takeaway: Live your life without the camera for ten minutes today. See what happens. Spoiler: You might actually feel something. Sontag would be proud—or at least, pouty but impressed.