Aesthetics at Huntington Library

Snagging a free day ticket to the Huntington Library was the highlight of my most recent visit to the grounds. It’s summer. It’s hot and it’s even hotter the more inland you go. If you didn’t know already, San Marino is next to Alhambra and the likes which means it’s basically in the San Gabriel Valley area. Valley… In other words, it’s hotter here. Fortunately, plentiful shade and the occasional breeze made this summer outing tolerable. I must admit that I was sweating like a pig, though…

Since free day tickets are almost impossible to obtain, I had to make it even though I was dreading the summer heat. The funny thing is that there were a good amount of people present which meant they adore hot weather or felt they needed to be present if they, like me somehow managed to obtain a free day ticket.

As much as I like the Huntington Library, especially with their free day tickets offer, I’ve come to dislike a specific type of visitor that tends to make the bulk of visitors here. It’s not the fault of Huntington Library at all for being aesthetically pleasing in many areas however it’s this very fact that brings forth some form of social media craze (think IG and TIkTok) amongst many of its visitors and this just doesn’t sit too well with me for some reason.

I bring this up because I don’t really see this happening at other places, such as The Arboretum, the South Coast Botanic Garden and the Fullerton Arboretum.

At the Huntington Library, you see this frenzy happening mainly around the Japanese Garden and last time around, the Rose Garden. It just ruins the mood at times when people NEED to have that specific photo.

I was walking in a bamboo grove, adjacent to the Japanese Garden, only to hear an “older” woman talking about green screens and learning something new (in reference to either a new technique or transition). I’m glad she was excited but wtf. Are you, your husband and son here to enjoy the day or are you, your husband and your son trying to make money off of your son? I will assume that the son (either an older teen or super young adult) has a decent following on a platform. That’s great but has society really come to this? I suppose I should be cautious of what remarks I make since I myself was taking photos and videos but it was a bit different or so I like to think. And no, I’m not saying I’m better in any way. In this family’s case, if the son is making bank from this with the help of his parents, great! But it then leads to the question of whether he truly wants to do this and if fame and/or money is preventing at least one of his parents from letting him have the “childhood” he should have had. It may not be any of my business but I can’t help but to be disturbed by it all, nonetheless. I heard the son utter something and his voice didn’t seem ecstatic at all.

And then there are the typical young ones that need to have the best photo (or whatever) before uploading it onto their feed. I was kind enough to stop myself from walking so that this girl could finish taking a photo that was just taking abnormally long. She was flippant with me before she decided to thank me without even looking at me and I get it because she’s young and she’s with her posse of friends but wtf. I don’t know if this girl also has many followers on whatever platform(s) she’s on but if she does have many followers, all I can say is that I’m appalled that we’ve reached a point in society where people can’t communicate with others (“strangers”) in real life, photos are prioritized over meaningful communication and being self-serving without any care or awareness to the space you share with others (“strangers”) is the norm.

It’s not a good look. If this is how things are now, how will things be a lot later from now? I remember the time a young girl sitting by me kicked me more than once and could only look at me, as if expecting me to say something despite the fact that it should be her to utter an apology. I let it slide because it’s a child and it’s not my place to “teach” someone else’s child but wtf? I suppose the Mom is at fault here for not teaching the child any better but I must say that this seems to be an unfortunate trend with the newest generation. People that don’t know any “better” can get a pass but what happens when they’re not young anymore? What happens when their crappy behavior as children, teens and young adults get normalized due to them always getting a pass from their parents, teachers and strangers, even? I don’t know what the underlying issue is but it seems as though the adult(s) in their life has become self-absorbed, leading their own child(ren) to become even more self-absorbed in the process. And we already know that the self-absorption of being ON all the time via social media platforms isn’t going to help with the Me Me Me complex. It just leads people to care less about others.

I’ve gone off on a tangent but let’s just say that it’s difficult to enjoy the Huntington Library when you encounter so many people like this. If you’re an “influencer” of any type, just know that the Huntington Library is going to fit your needs in some way or another.

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