Photos? Why?

I attended graduation for several of my friends today, and I was struck by the number of photos that people were taking. For instance, before the graduates-to-be appeared, people busily took photos of the empty stage. Why? Do they really think that they're going to want to look at that photo in the future? "Oh, lets look at the pix from Jonathan's graduation. Ooh - look, it's the stage! Can I get an 8 x 10 of that? And maybe one for my wallet, too?" One person near me took so many pictures that she killed the battery on her camera before they even started to award the degrees.

A few might have been checking light levels, focus, etcetera, but don't try to tell me that all of them were.