Steve Jobs is sucking the soul out of New York City one photograph at a time.

For decades visitors of New York City have burned through multiple rolls of film and maxed out their memory sticks taking pictures of the city that never sleeps. Scores of family photo albums throughout the world are dedicated to photos taken in front of the city’s famous landmarks and next to homeless people in Penn Station—and for good reason. New York City is actually quite a beautiful place. The people that live and work here are normally too stressed out to notice.

The magnificent art deco skyscrapers like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building are iconic. The Statue of Liberty is a worldwide symbol of our freedom. Visiting the tree and rink in Rockefeller Center during the holiday season is time-honored tradition for millions of couples and families. An early evening springtime walk through the West Village is positively picturesque. Central Park is pretty dope. The museums are famous. And I guess even Times Square is at least a distinctly New York eyesore.

But the most photographed landmark in New York City isn’t any of these places. In fact, it’s a place that is barely unique to New York. It’s a place that many of you have at your local malls, less than twenty minutes from your houses.

It turns out the Apple Store on Central Park South and 5th Avenue tickles the fancy of the most photo-snapping index fingers. According to TechNewsDaily, a researcher by the name of Eric Fischer analyzed millions of pictures’ geo-tagged information on Flickr to determine the most photographed landmarks in New York.

As it turns out, the glass square that was inspired by the inverted glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris reigned supreme. The next three runners-up in order are Rockefeller Center, Columbus Circle and Times Square.

This research doesn’t simply include tourists either, but locals are also fawning over the glass square that marks the underground entrance to New York’s flagship Apple store. Inside, it’s not much different than the one in your local mall, chock-full of sexy iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks with all the sexy accessories the sexy owners could ever need. I give Czar Jobs a lot of credit for making electronics that can arouse people, but the culture he’s created is making a nicely designed Radioshack a tourist attraction.

Whoever is taking pictures of the damn cube needs to get their heads out of their asses—literally—Central Park right is behind you! So is the Plaza Hotel, possibly one of the most iconic hotels in the world—the same place Kevin McAllister stayed in “Home Alone 2″ and Charlie Sheen’s favorite place to beat up prostitutes. The Met, MoMA and the Guggenheim are down the street. Go take pictures of the beautiful brownstones on the Upper East Side, or the giant animated stuffed animals in FAO Schwarz, or heckle whoever is on CBS news. Go for a horse ride, eat a hot dog, yell at a cab driver. You can do all of these things are within a few blocks of that damn Apple store.

But do yourself a favor: as wonderfully minimal as the Apple store’s simple translucent design is, there are literally hundreds of better places and things to take pictures of—Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, the really good looking people in SoHo, even the great state of New Jersey is right across the water!

No interest? You sure? Alright, then excuse me while I pour some liquor out for the fallen architects who are surely turning over in their graves.

[TechNewsDaily]