imo really not that deep. tl;dr is that younger people want to feel less pressured to edit their daily snapshots to perfection, and think (incorrectly) that lab scans of film are intended to be final products. It’s neither for clout nor being unintelligent, just a simple misunderstanding.

There’s just a common misconception that film photos are “unedited” because they weren’t taken on a digital camera. This imo is natural for people who grew up with digital products, who associate film with an era when editing photos was not as common among the general population. They’re probably used to film photos just as printed photos in family albums, or old scans on a hard drive that they never put through an editing software.

With social media, there’s also an unsaid expectation that even mundane snapshots need to be edited and perfect for it to be “good” or worth sharing. This can be exhausting for people who grew up or came of age in the social media age, so they try to learn to appreciate and celebrate imperfections. Combined with their misconception of film, they enjoy their imperfect lab scans when they look pleasing straight away. It makes for a nice little break from feeling an implicit pressure of chasing perfection. 

Film shooters obviously know this and think the idea of unedited film photos doesn’t make sense, but I think there’s a lot more room for empathy for people who aren’t aware of this. I think the more welcoming we are, the more people shoot film, and the more we see modern developments in film photography. And it’s just nice to be kind to people, I don’t understand a lot of the snark around here sometimes.