Ok! I have to write this... Even it means missing out on watching Bambi tonight. Have we suddenly started living through our cameras? One look at Facebook or archaic Orkut, and the answer is loud and clear. About 70-100 pictures for a birthday or night out and 200 for a vacation is standard.
Back in the day when our parents were growing up, it was the age of the still camera that graduated from black & white to sepia to eastman colour to colour. They still treasure their albums (Heck, I still treasure my albums!), some of which are neatly placed in scrapbook format. Most of them, if not all were special. The camera was meant to be lovingly taken out of the cupboard, loaded carefully with a film reel, and the shutterbugs were only supposed to flash at significant moments. The film was expensive and not to be wasted on random things/ people/ places/ moments.
Digital cameras and the odd 2 megapixel cameras in our cellphones have done away with the tedious process of buying film and getting it developed. Things are easy as pie now, more so if you don’t want prints of all your pictures. Surely saves space, time and money. Upload them online and it’s safe forever, even if your hard disk crashes. But there’s a flipside. Aren’t we all becoming slaves to our digicams? Don't get me wrong. I'm all for embracing new technology (even the Mac at work is growing on me) and conveniently sharing pictures with sundry friends and cousins et al, but the obsession with posing for FB profile pictures every now and then is a bit much to chew on. We are failing to live in the moment in order to capture it. We are so overwhelmed by “clicking lots of pictures” and “uploading them on FB” and “tagging them” that sometimes we end up forgetting why we are clicking them in the first place.
It has happened with me many times. When I look at pictures after an occasion or those resulting from an impromptu photo session, I think to myself, “When did this happen?” or “Why don’t I remember this?” Take it all in guys, you’ll remember it better without your cams (click some for bees saal baad's sake though)! Maybe it’s just a memory problem, I am 25 after all!
But I do believe it’s time we start experiencing more and clicking less.
5 comments:
hee hee. reminds me of my boss saying "foto zaada kheenchte ho, enjoy kam karte ho". i agree.
maybe FB is a greater culprit than digi cams. or maybe social networking sites in general. you could well conduct your social life through social networking sites without ever moving from in front of your computer.
P.S - calling big boss bambi doesnt make it less so.
Failing to live n the moment in order to capture it. Appropriately said.
@ pankaj - yeah i agree with your FB observations but the convenience of digicams adds to it for sure. i can't imagine someone clicking on regular cams, getting the reel developed, scanning it and then uploading! and FYI, i paused bambi on my laptop to write this. big boss is ur fav, not mine.
@ anonymous - thanks!
"We are failing to live in the moment in order to capture it. We are so overwhelmed by “clicking lots of pictures” and “uploading them on FB” and “tagging them” that sometimes we end up forgetting why we are clicking them in the first place."
Beautifully summed up. You have raised a very valid question. I am afraid i am an example.
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