Photography - an easy art?

I had just arrived at a folkloristic Portuguese "festa", in a lovely piazza with a lot of cafés and a nice caractheristic church. On that special occasion, a very representative music group started to sing on the sweet rhythm of the Portuguese guitar and it seemed exactly the same music with the same voices I used to listen to on my CDs. Only that this time it was live, right there in front of me, with women wearing colourful traditional costumes and men dressed in black, with big hats and long moustaches. Of course it was a memorable view; so I was truly enjoying it, trying to grasp some words and to understand what was it all about.
However, I was continously disturbed by the flashes coming from all directions. Paying a closer attention, I saw that almost everyone was taking so many photos of the event, without even listening the music. I actually saw a group of three people who arrived in that place, surprisingly faced the music group and then this man gave his bag to the woman in the group and started taking photos desperately.
It just seems all so weird. Photography has become more than a tangible proof or a sweet memory, it is something we all like to do. Everyone is trying his best shots and thinks that his angle is the best, only because it captures something that the others will never understand. Well, it is most certainly true, since everyone has a unique view over the world, but do we actually have to name this art? There is a huge difference between artistic photography and a quick shot of an event, but the line is not so definite since there are so many people with a common artistic passion: photography. When have we all become artists only by pushing a button?
I have to admit that I have also taken some photos of that folkloristic event, mostly to have a memory of that night, but also with artistic claims. After having taken a photography course at the university, quite a lot of people have appreciated my shots so I now keep it like a hidden passion. I realise though that I generally keep to myself a passion which is commonly popular among others, falsely thinking that my way of living this passion is unique only because it is not shared or spread like others' hobbies. I remember going crazy for Guns'n'Roses' song Don't cry in the tenth grade, but I've secretely kept this fact only because there was this girl who was desperately yelling for it everytime we heard it at a party. My selfish thought pushed me to believe that I liked the song in a much more profound way than she did. 
Nonetheless, I still hope that it won't happen the same way with photography. While it is one of the most accesible forms of art - quick results, easy and available for almost everyone - we have to make a difference between a simple shot, an incomprehensible picture (that oh, we fools, do not understand) and a photography which acutally has a meaning.