My point and shoot camera is looking rather dusty these days, and with good reason – I never use the damn thing anymore. It sits on a desk, unused – and what’s worse is the pictures in it are old…really old. Like, my kids are missing teeth in those pictures.
This is where I would normally explain why, but most of you have probably already guessed (or stopped reading to return a text). Blame the smart phone – that ubiquitous device that is slowly but surely recording every moment of our lives – the good, the bad, and the ridonkulously bad.
The Smart phone revolution is one of those blessing/curse things. Going out for drinks and dinner usually leads to a frenzy of intoxicated friends wielding smart phones. Capturing great times as they happen? Blessing. Capturing bad-judgement to be shared in perpetuity? No contest. Seeing yourself the way the rest of the bar sees you – drunk, stupid and belting out the lyrics to Kanye’s latest hit is definitely a curse, my friend. Add to that the threat of someone uploading it to Facebook and it’s purgatory waiting to happen.
Smart phones make it possible for us to record everything, even that which is totally unnecessary. Thanks to mobile uploads, I know exactly what certain friends are eating….all the time. Why anyone would want photo evidence of how badly they eat is beyond me. Never mind that it’s next to impossible for me to eat salad when someone’s posting pictures of molten chocolate cake, how do these people not weigh over 400 pounds with this diet? I am campaigning to add a feature that imprints the calorie count directly over the photo because I think some shame is in order. My trainer would agree, but I digress…
As a time-deprived parent, smart phones are a blessing for those of us who run out the door barely remembering our own child let alone a camera. Surprise soccer games and school plays? Bring it. Of course, the lack of zoom quality requires you to obnoxiously sit about one foot under the stage, but when it comes to recording your offspring in action, the rules of politeness fly out the window anyway.
Speaking of which, even my own kids are aware of the threat of smart phones and social networks. Now whenever I take a picture of them they bark, “you better not post this on Facebook, Mom!” Killjoys.
In spite of all my snarky observations, I believe there is one really great thing about the smart phone revolution and it’s this; we look at, enjoy and share our pictures more than ever before. They are with us wherever we go, and in spite of the fact that they rarely get printed out, the images are burned deeper into our memories. In a world that moves at breakneck speed, it’s nice to be able to stop and take a moment to look at a picture that makes you smile, laugh, cringe, or shed a tear – if only to remind you of what and who is important to you.
But if that tender moment strikes while you’re in the produce section of your local supermarket, please don’t take a picture of your dinner, or the squash that looks like a certain part of the male anatomy…I beg of you. Until smartphones come equipped with an alert that says, “really?” a little self-restraint would definitely be a blessing…for all of us.
