I started using Instagram in 2013, when I moved to the US to share snaps of my life with friends, family, and for myself to look back at in the future. I wasn’t a very prolific, daily user, but I think I managed to document all the best memories: events, travels, moments with friends or family, even some seemingly mundane things that I wanted to take photos of to be able to better remember later how I spent my days there.
Looking back, somehow I managed to create a balance between living life to the fullest and still creating physical mementos. Since then, I think I’ve lost that balance and I’m afraid I’m not the only one.
It has become something of a cliché to continuously preach about how technology and phones are ruining our life and make us actually miss out on experiences. There are thousands of studies, clever (and shocking) photo and video experiments, stories, statistics, and testimonials about this phenomenon. But we don’t even need research to realize a lot of us really experience life through a 5 inch screen – we see it happening everyday.
And I’m not talking about actually being glued to our phones all the time instead of being present in conversations, events, or just daily life (that’s another discussion), I mean relying excessively on our cameras to enjoy and record memories.
Dark and blurry photos instead of vivid memories
The most striking personal example that made me aware of this was during a trip to Poland. We were at a national park, hiking and enjoying the truly spectacular views. Suddenly, a little crowd formed, and as we went closer we saw the source of excitement: a giant, beautiful deer appeared out of nowhere just a couple of steps from us.
To be honest, I’m really not the Animal Planet enthusiast type of person. I like to keep my distance from most animals and rarely get excited about them. But even I had to admit, this one was beautiful and not many people have the experience to meet one up so close. So, of course, instinctively I searched frantically for my phone in my bag, took it out and prepared for the perfect National Geographic shot – only to realize (through my camera viewpoint) that the deer has disappeared.
Now, it may not be the most dramatic or shocking story ever, but I was actually really disappointed – in myself mostly. In hindsight, what the hell was a photo like that good for? Would I ever really reuse it? Take it out from time to time and reminiscence over a (probably blurry and bad) photo? I doubt it. I just sacrificed a real moment for the illusion of making a memory.
I guess most of us have stories like that. Spending valuable time on snapping hundreds of dark and blurry pictures at a concert, instead of singing along, dancing, and having fun. Trying to capture the perfect moment of sunset and thus missing its grandiosity and how the color transforms the parts of the scene outside our camera lens. Trying to record our kid at a graduation, from a distance of 30 meters, instead of clapping and being happy.
Some moments are worth capturing
I don’t want to go all spiritual and anti-technology on you. It’s not about that. This article suggests that taking photos is actually hurting your ability to remember events, because you’re counting on the camera to remember for you.
I can only half-agree with this bold statement. Yes, viewing life exclusively through a lens is definitely not good. Yes, you’re actually missing out on the experience. However. We should not underestimate the evocative value of a photo. Going back to my US memories example, I still regularly go through those photos to remember, because just one look at them brings back a whole lot of memories.
I remember the day it was taken.
The weather.
The smells.
The streets.
What we did.
What we talked about.
How we felt.
A good photo is able to instantly transport you back to the moment it was snapped and so much more.
For this reason exactly, do not throw away your phones and cameras. Just try to be more mindful of how and how much you use them.
Bringing back the Kodak mentality
I’m calling this mindful approach to documenting the “Kodak mentality“. Because there WAS a life before iPhones and DSLRs. And how people took photos was completely different.
I went to school in the pre-iPhone era. When we went on class trips, I took the family Kodak camera and one (or if I was really lucky), maybe 2 rolls of photographic films. Which meant I could maybe shoot 24 or 48 images. In a week.
That made you really think hard of what you wanted to use those shots for.
Now? The sky’s the limit and I often take 300 image/day during a travel. Only to delete half of those later and select around 50 of the best ones to make a photo presentation.
Not to mention the constant need to share those moments in real time on Snapchat or IG stories. That disappears 24 hours later. Is it worth it?
Let’s be honest, if you’re not a travel photographer, there is probably no need to take 2-300 photos a day, because:
A. You’ll spend the majority of the time behind the camera.
B. No one will take the time to go through thousands of photos after a trip. Which means you’ll probably never open that folder ever again – which kind of defeats the purpose of photo memories in the first place.
Probably no need to share every single moment with your followers either – if you’re sharing only a couple to give them a vibe or an essence of a place, it’s more than enough.
Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going back to shooting with a Kodak camera either. It wasn’t all that fun, especially when you only realized after you got the photos back from the lab that 90% of them are useless, because there was no light. But I am trying to utilize the Kodak mentality a lot more – selecting what is actually worth capturing and putting my camera away the rest of the time to focus on the moment itself.
I personally do my best to enjoy every moment and worry less about photos. I am glad I have friends with similar mindset. I could spend an entire weekend with my friends and not take one selfie. Nothing is more vivid than out own memory. I just wish we didn’t allow social media ruin so many things for us.
Yes, it’s easy to fall into the social media trap, but it looks like you’re very mindful about it, and also surrounded by similar people, and that’s great!
I often find people documenting daily life annoying. I live in the New Your City area and find myself tripping over them constantly. I believe whatever picture I may think about taking documenting daily life I can find a better one online. LOL.
If you are not present you will have to visualize during my description of the event because I rarely document my daily life. I do regularly take pictures of things I find artistic or odd.
I read an interview this week with a teacher who spoke about how he needs to rethink his teaching methods to adapt to this fast-paced lifestyle. He talked about how people forgot the skill of describing something in detail, while still finding and emphasising the essential parts. We’re so accustomed to sharing everything in the moment, whether through Insta pictures, tweets, or through text messages that we don’ even know anymore how to tell stories or how to filter what’s important.So, yes, putting down the phone or focusing on the essence, the artistic, the odd is probably more important than ever.
Absolutely loved this piece. I love the fact that you emphasised the need for balance and mindfulness. Not that we shouldn’t take pictures but how and how many we should take is very important. Thank you 🙂
Thank you so much for reading and your kind words. Yes, as I said, I do think photos can be important mementos (and I also love photograhy as an art and form of creative expression), we just have to be really mindful and selective when it comes to deciding which moments are worth capturing.
I love this blog post so much because it’s something I’ve been thinking about for the past few years of my life too. When I first started taking pictures to document my life and others around me, I managed to have a healthy balance between documenting and being in the moment which is probably why I don’t take many photos nowadays because I don’t know how to get that balance back. It’s either being present or this obsession and tendency to want to take photos as a first reaction and often miss the experience/moment.
It’s totally a challenge and often find myself struggling with the same thing. A good example is IG stories especially when I’m traveling. I think about sharing some snaps because it might be interesting to others, but then I’m afraid that it becomes a chore and all I would be doing is snapping and editing my photos instead of enjoying the vacation. So, more often than not, I don’t post at all. It’d be good to find the perfect recipe for this!