I was recently at a concert, and as I looked around at everyone in the crowd with their phones out documenting the entire show, I realized that, as a population, we love to take photos. I currently have about 8,000 photos and videos in my camera roll, even after routinely going through them at least once a week to try and clear up some storage. After my concert experience, I realized there’s many others in the same boat, which begs the question: why do we feel such a need to document our whole lives?Â
Post it or it Didn’t Happen
I think the first reason people are often swayed by the impulse to pull out their phones and capture meaningful, exciting, or beautiful moments of life happening around them is so they can post on social media. I know this is something I’ve certainly fallen victim to. We want people to know that we traveled to that cool place, had lunch with that one old friend, celebrated that person’s birthday, went to that concert everyone wanted to go to, had brunch, or went on that walk. People create ideas about each other based off of online profiles more than they do actually seeing someone in person. This happens because, with most people, you see their posts on Instagram more often than you see them in real life. Out of that phenomenon comes the desire to build an online presence that presents us in whatever way we want to be presented. We are given this unique opportunity to choose how people see us, and because of that, we document our lives in order to give people the best idea of who we are.
The Fear of Losing a Memory
The other reason why we feel a compulsion to capture meaningful moments is that photos convey a sense of permanence. It’s uncomfortable to consider that something really special could happen to us and we could have absolutely no memory of it. Out of that fear stems the desire to preserve important moments in photo or video form so that we can go back, look at them, and be reminded of the things that have happened to us. In this way, our camera rolls begin to double as a library of our memories, which is a really special thing. Being able to take so many photos and videos is a comfort to us, because it’s easier to rely on something tangible to remember than on our own brains.
Is It Problematic?
The final question to ask is whether photography to such a large extent is problematic. I think the short answer is no, but sometimes it’s better to just live in the moment. You’re probably never going to go back and watch the 25 videos you have in your camera roll from a concert you went to. Additionally, when you’re taking videos at a concert, you can’t really pay full attention to what’s actually going on around you, and that’s just not as fun. The same goes for taking photos of a beautiful place, your friend blowing out their birthday candles, or anything else you’re trying to remember. It’s good to have memories of those moments, but it’s also important to stop and look around so you can remember more than just the view through your phone screen.