I've sometimes been tempted to 'blame' social media for the crowds on certain hills, but of course Snowdonia, the Lakes, etc. were popular tourist destinations long before there was any such thing, or even the ability for most people to take photos easily.
Interestingly, on a recent walk I found myself with no way to take pictures (didn't want to risk getting my camera wet so had brought my phone instead, but the battery didn't last). I was surprised to find myself thinking 'what's the point if I have no record of it/have nothing to post online/can't prove I did it'. But in the end it was actually a relief to be able to just focus on the walk and not worry about documenting every step.
Documenting every step for social media is something peculiar to some generations whilst others look on, confused as to why anyone should care. Sadly it's becoming a 'virtual currency' and young kids get anxiety over the amount of 'likes' they get on their posts and delete them if they're unsuccessful - the need to put themselves on display in the name of engagement and connection, but really often a veneer for our performative image and vanity
Often you see this need to satisfy the ego creeping in when it comes to "aren't I great" content: themes like 'look how far I went', 'how fast I did it', and 'how great I looked' during the process. In some respects this is why content which recognises it's audience and provides value to them is far more useful - mention your mistakes (everyone makes them), don't treat them as a method to puff up your ego (which comes across as insecure) but instead try to laugh at yourself a little.
Yes, it is bit like the old fashioned paper photo-album where you would stick your photos in and write some text underneath. They are great to have for your personal memories and the possibility to show them to interested friends and family.
But in the digital age, things get more messy. First of all, digital pictures don't cost money so you take (many) more of them. So now you don't have 24 or 36 photos of your holiday but hundreds/ thousands. That means you now need to select. So the best thing to do is make a nice selection that captures the spirit of the trip and add some text, to recreate the old fashioned photo-book/ scrap-book.
I've been doing a massive sort out lately and noticed just how little I've looked through most of those albums, in particular digital albums which end up as a black hole of hundreds of photos from various years. Not quite sure how best to remedy this - a digital photo frame works for many people, have it somewhere prominent so you can see it of course, but it doesn't quite solve the problem with the sheer amount of photos you need to cull through.
To an extent this was why I wrote a trip-diary, rather than worry about having hundreds of photos I'd just end up ignoring several years (decades?) later I'd force myself to go through them, reflect a little, draw those memories out whilst they were fresh and try to capture the enjoyment in words. Possibly also because there have been many amazing blogs I've read and I want to do something similar for my little patch of the world so I can persuade my grandkids I indeed did spend most of my free time climbing mountains (I assume my knees won't work by then so they'd be understandably doubtful)