Preserve Your Memories

Remember all those embarrassing (and nude) photos of you as a baby that your parents keep safely in their inventories? I was just browsing Facebook today and realizing that this scenario is not so for babies of the future.. or rather, of the Now.

Everyone born recently, whose parents are avid Facebookers, will basically be growing up "in the media".. having their entire lives documented in photos for all the world to see via the interwebs.

I haven't decided yet if that's a crazy item of ponder or just a thing that happens.. but I'm going to bank on those kids not wanting nude baby photos of themselves up all over the web once they're old enough to realize the embarrassment factor...Or they might not care. By then those photos probably will be deleted or hidden so deep into their parents' photo albums that it wouldn't matter I guess. (WHOAH. Just stumbled on an article about a photo on facebook of a mother breastfeeding her kid.. NO, No.. so terrible.)

Anyway, the thing that bothers me about the photos is when people use camera phones to take poor quality photos of their babies during their momentous stages of development.. or of anything that's worth remembering at that. I hope they're taking doubles of those shots with a camera that makes the capturing of that moment seem like it matters by documenting it with some care and quality. And I hope the only place they keep those precious photos isn't on Facebook alone... or even on a computer alone.

"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." That's a line from Simon and Garfunkle's song Bookends. It's a strong message to me. Photos are so valuable, and have a profound nostalgia. They represent times that have gone, or people who have passed.

Take the time to document well what's important to you. That means keeping track of photos as well as taking them in the first place.