Which is more important: the journey or the memory?
We, as a society, have become obsessed with our cameras and camera-phones. More pictures are taken with an iPhone than any other camera out there, which is a testament to the need / desire of people to take pictures everywhere they go. There are countless apps that focus solely taking “better” pictures or sharing your pictures in new and supposedly interesting ways. Facebook took off on the need that people have to take and share pictures. Now mind you, I am not opposed to taking pictures. I love the fact that I can take high-quality pictures instantly wherever I may be. Gone are the days of having to lug around a camera, tripod, lens, flash and a case to carry it all in. But I question the need to take pictures of every moment at all times. I feel that sometimes it’s better to just enjoy the moment instead of being obsessed with capturing it.
Memories on vacation
What’s the purpose of a vacation? Surely there are lots of reasons people decide to get away for a bit, including destressing, exploring, spending quality time with loved ones and so on. I like to think of a vacation as a journey, regardless of the reason you decide to take one.
You wake up in a new city, excited to explore. You take in the sights, the smells and of course the local lore. This trip has been planned meticulously for months with the help of every planning guide, search, and review aggregator that you could find. So your itinerary is mapped down to the hour, even allotting for a few hours here and there of “leisure.” After getting dressed and leaving the hotel room, you hit the streets ready to finally explore. You’re armed with nothing more than your trusty iPhone, a smile, and a loose collection of cash ready to be spent so that memories can be made! What more do you need, right?
When you arrive at the first noteworthy thing, you immediately whip out the good ol’ iPhone and take a picture of it. Cool, my friends back home will be so jealous that I just saw blind guy throwing darts. You move on since you’ve already captured the moment — no need to dwell on it. It’s time to grab some lunch, so after some quick searching (you can’t be bothered to explore when Google is so convenient), you find a place to eat. You snap pictures of your food because you’ll definitely want to remember what you ate later, right?
And so your vacation goes. The entire journey is meticulously journaled in the flash memory of your phone. You have 900 pictures by the time you get home and realize that you actually missed out on quite a bit along the way. In capturing the journey, you’ve forgotten to enjoy it!
Don’t forget the kids
I’m a new parent. It’s just about the greatest thing that anyone can experience. But lately, I’m noticing a trend that is a bit unsettling. It seems that because we have technology, we feel compelled to use it. Every single movement that your child makes must be documented for some reason. I’ve made a conscious effort in my life to actually enjoy my daughter’s milestones instead of rushing to my phone to document them. When she made her first steps, I’m proud to say that I resisted the impulse to whip out my phone and shoot a video of it. Instead, I sat and watched it. Forever burned into my mind is that glorious moment when she first exerted the independence that she knew was so precious.
She does countless cute things all day, everyday. I see other parents trying to “capture the moments,” so that they can relive them later. Me? I’d rather live in the moment. I’m sure I’ll forget a lot of what I find so valuable and precious today. I’m sure I’ll wish that I had just recorded that one thing she did last week or last month. But it’s a balance. I can’t possibly capture it all and I can’t remember it all; knowing that makes the memories I have that much more valuable. Photos and videos are great to jog our memories, not replace them.
Live for today
I understand how important photos are and how wonderful a time we live in that we can capture literally any moment that we wish. The phones of today have so much more technology and capacity than the cameras of yesterday. The cameras have gotten so advanced that the quality of the images produced is something to be impressed by. But for a second, just a second, what if you stopped worrying about the memory and instead enjoyed the journey?
