Are we fostering a “culture of personal documentation” — that is, a culture in which we must record, document and publicize the events in our lives instead of merely experiencing them?
If it’s happening, we certainly have the right tools and technology for it. Digital cameras and memory cards are cheap enough that most anybody who really wants one can get one, or they already own a device that has a digital camera built into it. Many people have cell phones and service plans that allow texted status updates, video recording and picture uploading, and smartphones are common enough to do more involved Web 2.0-y stuff. And social networking has hit a sort of critical mass where pretty much everybody’s on Facebook, so there’s an automatic, built-in audience for putting your life on display.
And at least anecdotally, events that probably would otherwise be too mundane or unremarkable to warrant bringing along a camera a decade or so ago (grabbing dinner with friends, going to the mall) are now thoroughly photographed and commented upon. In some ways, it can feel like an event only “counts” — it only really happened, or it’s only worthy of acknowledgment — if there’s some documentary proof of it, even if such proof comes in the form of a T9-assisted, “Having a great night!” Facebook status.
I know that this is the part where I’m supposed to roll my eyes and bemoan the shallow lameness of our exhibitionist/voyeuristic generation, but I don’t think that’s fair. Obviously, not everybody is assiduously publishing every minor detail of his or her lives, and even those who are doing so aren’t necessarily shallow or lame. They could, for instance, find it a very comforting form of self-expression, or they just really want their friends and family in the loop about what’s going on in their lives.
For example, say what you want about the silliness of Twitter, but when you haven’t seen someone you love in a while, getting a sense of how their day is going — even if it is just a series of tweets complaining about how their professor’s beard looks like a drowned possum — is utterly smile-inducing. But what’s more interesting about this for me is not just if a culture of personal documentation exists — it’s whether such a culture is changing the way we live our lives.
That’s certainly true in a superficial way: If you know you’re probably going to be photographed when you go out, you might consider wearing a shirt that wasn’t given to you for free by a predatory credit card company. Or you might shave a little bit more often. Or you might wear a little bit more makeup than you otherwise would.
It’s also true in terms of what we actually do with our lives, though. Certain activities lend themselves to photography more than others, and some make for a more awesome-sounding blog post. If there’s an added consideration of, “What will sound cool later?” as opposed to just, “What do I want to do?” when deciding how to spend your time, it would directly influence our perception of what activities are more worthwhile. And the mind reels at how many people got “In a Relationship” just for the News Feed entry.
That’s a shame because the most meaningful moments make for a bad profile photo, and not just in a “violation of the Terms of Service” sort of way. Moments of tentative, hopeful connections, of quiet surprise over a shared secret, of affectionate inside jokes aren’t really the sort of thing that a lot of people deem Facebook-worthy.
I promise I’m not a Luddite, nor do I think our generation has really gone all that crazy with this stuff. But I’m just a little worried about what happens when we place our lives constantly on a digital stage, performing for all to see.
Joe Dellosa is an advertising senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
