Recently, I've watched this video;
...And it makes me wonder. I have made a similar observation myself, that when faced with great, one-off or just rare personal events and experiences, a lot of people in my life seem fixated on preserving, rather than experiencing, those moments.
Who or what is that terabyte of vacation photos and home-made videos for? Would you rather experience your child's first words and remember that moment through the blur of organic memory, or relive that moment on video - the moment of you running for your phone in fear of missing out on making a video as your baby went "dada" for the first time? Would you remember yourself seeing the Grand Canyon, or filming it? Would you say, "I was there," even if in your mind, you were framing feedback and counting likes?
Or is it simply enough that, to use the example from the video, the fireworks look pretty on your phone and that someone who is likely to forget ever seeing it even as they press like beneath your post thusly validates you making your life for
them?Hmm... This might belong in philosophy, perhaps. We shall see. I think there is an interesting discussion to be had regardless.
I have recently been to see Madness at the Leeds arena. I took a couple of videos mainly to share with family. My granddaughter lives in San Francisco. She has come here twice and we have visited once. We really, really appreciate the photos and videos that her parents send. But those aren't posted on socmed (social media, new word I first saw today).
It does appear that many people live their lives on socmed. The proportion increases as age decreases.
Of course, when there is a reason to do it, you document events to share or just nudge your own memory at a later date. You enjoy a particularly spectacular sunrise on the beach, then take a photo of it to relive that moment later or share it with someone.
That is one thing. Now imagine the same sunrise, except in stead of enjoying it, you are busy framing the shot such that not a second of it goes undocumented.
In itself, there is nothing wrong with the latter - there are good and valid reason why a person would do that. However, when a large chunk of your life is documenting your experiences... Are you actually having them in any worthwhile manner? To frame it differently, does that film then document your experience of that sunrise, or your experience documenting it?
I like to experience and document.
Nothing wrong with both. That is, in fact, precisely why in my example, I said that "you enjoy a particularly spectacular sunrise [AND document it]..." As in, you have actually enjoyed the event "in real life," not merely "through the viewfinder."