My occasional foray into social media - Facebook and Instagram - shows me a newsfeed of my friends whose majority composition is of pictures (of places they are holidaying in, restaurants they are eating at, festivals they are celebrating, etc). I don't take as many pictures of similar things (and post even less), but I do understand the idea of it.
When we take pictures of the things we do, we are capturing moments in time that we can look back fondly upon at any point in the future. When I do look back upon the pictures that I have taken over the years while visiting various places, happy memories are evoked and I'm reminded of the times I spent at those places.
I wondered if one would feel that way when they looked through their own social media feed from months and years previously. After all, this is lot more than a photo album as the pictures we post on social media are accompanied by snippets of text that we wrote down describing it, among other things, which aren't available in a photo album. In that sense, it is more engaging to go over our own social media feeds from the past rather than looking at the same pictures in our photo albums (phone galleries). And we can always delve deeper into the albums to look at the pictures that we did not upload on social media after being lead there from something we noticed in our feed from the past.
With this thought, I looked through my own social feed for the past few months and years. And the two things that made up over ninety five percent of my posts were the articles I've written and the books I've read.
I realised that what I have been posting is not dissimilar from all my friends that post their pictures often. I have been capturing moments as well that I can look back upon fondly and be reminded of the times when I either wrote those articles or read those books. Only the moments I've been capturing are less visuals and more thoughts.
Every post that I write on any given day is influenced heavily by what's happening around me or what's in my head for that day or that week. And when I read something I've written a year or two ago, or read the review and rating of a book that I read months or years ago, I am reminded of what my thoughts and ideas and perspectives were at the time. And I can compare that to my thoughts and ideas today and see my own growth over this time (or occasionally turn nostalgic about the better times).
We think of photos and videos (and while traveling, souvenirs) alone as tools for capturing moments and memories. But as I look back on my social feed from many months ago, I can say that everything that we do that we can look back on is an equally effective tool for capturing moments and memories.
When we take pictures of the things we do, we are capturing moments in time that we can look back fondly upon at any point in the future. When I do look back upon the pictures that I have taken over the years while visiting various places, happy memories are evoked and I'm reminded of the times I spent at those places.
I wondered if one would feel that way when they looked through their own social media feed from months and years previously. After all, this is lot more than a photo album as the pictures we post on social media are accompanied by snippets of text that we wrote down describing it, among other things, which aren't available in a photo album. In that sense, it is more engaging to go over our own social media feeds from the past rather than looking at the same pictures in our photo albums (phone galleries). And we can always delve deeper into the albums to look at the pictures that we did not upload on social media after being lead there from something we noticed in our feed from the past.
With this thought, I looked through my own social feed for the past few months and years. And the two things that made up over ninety five percent of my posts were the articles I've written and the books I've read.
I realised that what I have been posting is not dissimilar from all my friends that post their pictures often. I have been capturing moments as well that I can look back upon fondly and be reminded of the times when I either wrote those articles or read those books. Only the moments I've been capturing are less visuals and more thoughts.
Every post that I write on any given day is influenced heavily by what's happening around me or what's in my head for that day or that week. And when I read something I've written a year or two ago, or read the review and rating of a book that I read months or years ago, I am reminded of what my thoughts and ideas and perspectives were at the time. And I can compare that to my thoughts and ideas today and see my own growth over this time (or occasionally turn nostalgic about the better times).
We think of photos and videos (and while traveling, souvenirs) alone as tools for capturing moments and memories. But as I look back on my social feed from many months ago, I can say that everything that we do that we can look back on is an equally effective tool for capturing moments and memories.
CONVERSATION