Instagramification
by Tanya
Sometimes I think about the ease with which we can document the minutiae of our daily routines. It seems like it’s changing the way we store memories, and I’m conflicted about whether or not that’s a good thing. Like many others, I use social media, and I take photos with my phone. Because it is still the easiest app to use for editing and sharing photos on the fly, Instagram has become a bit of a habit.
I am aware that through the simple act of pausing and taking a photo, we’re altering the experience and casting an editorial glance that changes our perception. I understand the disruptive nature of documenting, and it’s something I try to think about a bit more. I do my best not to be egregious with photo taking, and having been reprimanded on some occasions, reach for my phone as little as possible while out with friends. I’m also starting to come to terms with the fact that our way of experiencing and interpreting life is going through a major shift. I’m curious about our relationship to these photos when we look at them at a later point. Am I, in fact, preserving a memory when I take a photo? Or am I crafting a somewhat altered, carefully edited and selected version of a moment, so that in retrospect, it seems more ambiguous and interesting, almost cinematic? Maybe a little bit of both.
While taking snapshots of the everyday may be an exercise in self satisfaction, there is also a benefit to it. Looking through my set of pictures, what I see is a life that often has lovely, interesting moments. The fact is, these snapshots are still a documentation of at least some degree of reality. I am reminded that my life often has moments of joy, creativity, learning, and comfort. Given the human tendency towards dwelling on the negative, I am OK reflecting on only the positive moments I choose to capture. Bad experiences and frustrating memories will find their way to us regardless, so why not balance it out with something pleasant.
How do you feel about documenting daily moments in pictures? Do you think it’s a reliable way to record memories? What do you feel when you look back through your photos?
personally i have a lot of trouble with the actual physical experience of it – get the phone out, don’t drop the phone, start the camera app, don’t have too shaky hands, be in enough light for the weak electronic eyes to see as well as our top-predator human eyes, yada. by the time it’s all ready, the moment to be captured has passed. so that what *does* get captured are static things. this building isn’t going anywhere.
there’s such a difference between what i see as a POV inside this whole arena of reality around me, and what a camera can see. sometimes it can see *more* of course, or better, or at least different. that’s the art of it. but it’s not really a record of my experience. (see most vacation photos.) at best it’s a reminder, but over time, mostly, what we remember *becomes* the reminder, not the original.
so something more like a “lifelog” tool, that captures a fair rendition of what i see, with little or no intervention required to record, would be, for me, a qualitatively different beast.
Oh, you mean like that thing I wish I had where I can basically record movies in my head just by looking at stuff, and then download them? I feel like that’s been a plot element in some sci-fi movie.
And yeah I agree, it is a little bit of self-deception, because like you said, the reminder, when time passes, becomes an altered copy/aspect of the moment. But on the other hand, I feel like sometimes I need help remembering things, and photos can jog the memory to recalling the actual experience.
When you find that neural implant that can use our eyes as cameras and then later transmit the recorded images from our brain to a computer, please tell me. Or maybe don’t, because I think then it’ll be THE FUTURE and I’ll be scared.
As long as you are not letting taking the photos get in the way of being in the moment I am all for it. It’s nice to capture the small things that make you smile.