I only have a handful of pictures from our family vacation last week. We escaped the “Snowmageddon” that dumped more than seventeen inches on the Northeast for what is now our annual trek to Florida in February.
The weather was as close to perfect as we could have hoped for, the sunsets were spectacular, both of my children had a wonderful time, and my husband and I finally got a chance to reconnect away from the rushed and harried life we live at home.
And I have almost nothing to show for it.
It’s not that I was making a conscious choice not to take pictures, it was that I was making a conscious effort not to post them on Instagram, or put them up on Facebook, or tweet them. I was taking a much-needed break from social media – something that is neither original nor uncommon these days. Some people have “Digital Sabbaths” rules of no tech at the dinner table, or after a certain time of day – for me this felt right…and necessary.
The fact that by the third day of our trip, I turned to my husband and said “I haven’t made you pose for a single ‘selfie’ with me yet!” and was somewhat shocked by it, said a lot to me. It made me ponder the reason and the audience I take all of those pictures for.
I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I realised that the hundreds of photos I usually take, and make my children and husband and – well, chickens I roast and pies that I bake – pose for, are not for us. They are for them. Those people out there that are also spending a lot of their time looking down at the phones they have glued to their hands.
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Enjoyed the article … I love taking pictures (on film long time ago and now, via my cell phone) mostly to preserve memories but also realized that I missing out on the here-and-now. After visiting my parents last year, I returned home with hundreds of photos on print (which brought back lots of memories) but will be scanning them to store it away. Here a link to my reflection about the topic > http://bit.ly/1fxjENF
I say: Take the photos, you'll love them later in life. But you don't have to do anything with it right away. Photograph the kids building sandcastles together, then get down in the sand with it. And later at night when the kids are asleep, or on another day when not much is happening, post it on FB if you like. FB has a place. Validation and interest and connection with people on FB has a place. But it doesn't have to be in real time!