I was reminded a few days ago of what we’ve lost in the digital age.
Pictures.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet isn’t forever. It does forget. At least, the stuff that you don’t actively curate or put out there.
I’ve been riding bike here in Korea for years now, and I’ve taken thousands of pictures along the way. Some of them, especially recently, has been auto-uploaded to an account. But even then, what happens when I die?
When I die, my children (or grandchildren) could very well be going through my things and finding pictures of people I’ve know and things I’ve seen, and they might ask, “Dad, who’s this?” They might also wonder why I have a picture in my desk drawer of an old man plowing a rice paddy with an ox.
Not so anymore. Who’s going to go through the several thousand photos I have locked up in my Amazon account? Who’s gonna know the who or what or why about those photos? It’s so easy now to just point and shoot a dozen without a thought…all of which get auto-uploaded and adds to the noise. “This is too much.” Then forgotten.
But a single picture? In a desk drawer? “Just what is this ox picture doing here?” There’s a story that goes with it. It’s not just some random shot that’s taken and forgotten. “Grandpa must have had a reason to keep it.”
Even if they never find out, there’s at least something there to stimulate the imagination. Something they can hold onto and look at when they want, and not just when it rolls around on a screensaver. Something to be cherished.
We’ve lost something of that in the digital age.
