People have moved from a horizontal to a vertical view of the world around them.

[Rustynaerduwell]

It bothers me when people take videos in the vertical format. I couldn't figure out why this is. Then I realized why...

We watch movies and TV with a horizontal aspect. In fact, we now expect our films to be widescreen. In the theater or at home, we are among others, sharing the experience. Cameras used to take pictures in a default horizontal plane. The purpose then was to save a moment in time that was a shared moment.

Then "selfies" came along, always taken with our phone, and nearly always set to the vertical plane.

This, I think, has changed us. It has subtly changed our perspective from one among others, sharing the world around us (naturally viewed from horizon to horizon) to one of seeing the world as separate from us- a solo autobiographical and vertical depiction- to be passed on to others.

Our phone is our mouthpiece, and now, so is our camera. And so the pictures taken with them are literally shot in the standing, vertical position. Our picture now say "this is me" instead of "this is the world around us".

[Blue_Adept]

1. "In fact, we now expect our films to be widescreen."

If by now you mean since 1953?

[Wounded Bear]

4. The meme would be better applied to TV...

wherein movies were "re-formatted to fit your screen" for many years. Wide screen TVs have become much more common now.

[Rustynaerduwell]

7. "This film has been modified to fit your screen"

"Letterbox" was a selling feature of DVDs just before the advent of HD TV, but most were still presented in 4:3 ratio, with pan and scan an accepted and expected compromise. So sorry, but I meant "movie watching" when I said "films"- as in at the theater or on TV or computer monitor. Widescreen is a recent feature in all of our movie and television viewing, is it not?

[Blue_Adept]

8. Widescreen in theaters goes back to 1953

And it was a "feature" that existed on home video previous with VHS and LaserDisc as well.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. All you have to do is turn the phone sideways.

[Nay]

3. Well, a pro photographer will always use both views (called "portrait" for vertical, and

"landscape" for horizontal). I don't think it has quite the meaning that you attribute to it, especially since the cell phone's natural hand position is vertical, while a camera's natural hand position is horizontal. I think most people will use the photo tool naturally in its default position just out of laziness or ease, not because they are (or are not) being self-centered.

[hunter]

5. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on aspect ratios.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29

The common 4:3 aspect ratio is presumably what our two eyes cover when we're sitting or standing upright and looking straight ahead.

The "wide screen" view presumably has origins in our evolutionary history, when humans were living in open spaces and scanning the horizon for prey and dangerous predators.

I enjoy taking pictures with a square aspect ratio. It's an exercise in composition.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/squareformat/pool/

I think movies with a square aspect ratio feel somewhat confining, like being in a room and looking through a square window. It's more difficult to get "lost" in the movie unless it's covering your entire field of vision.

The tried and true 4:3 aspect ratio (and it's close sister the 11:8 "Academy Ratio" ) is an excellent format for story telling, for both movies and still photography.

The Grand Budapest Hotel uses the Academy ratio very effectively.

[Rustynaerduwell]

6. One of the movies I fell in love with.

It actually is presented in three different aspect ratios, each representing the cinematic history of its time.

[malthaussen]

9. Heavy, man.

Seriously, that's an interesting insight. I think it needs more data points to evolve from hypothesis to theory. What might be some other examples of "verticality" over "horizonitality?" (Are there such words? There are now)

-- Mal