How I Remembered 10 Years of My Life
Like many, the pandemic has put a lot of our life on hold. There are those who sees the pandemic as just a nuisance, while many are faced with a difficult task of figuring out how to survive tomorrow. Regardless of which position we see our self in, many are probably shuffling through their phones right now — trying to remember a better day.
I have been on a quest to a pseudo-minimalism lifestyle, taking things out of my life both physically
and digitally
However, there was one area where it took me the longest (and hardest) time to clean up — and that is my photo album.
There was a time where we were limited by the amount of pictures we can take— where our memories are capped by our camera film. Since then, our ability to capture photos has expanded and now our phone offers virtually limitless space to capture and store of our memories. This did not come with a trade-off.
A study done by Linda Henkel suggested that when we decided to take a photograph, we involuntarily let go of the part in our brain that allows us to experience the environment around us — in hopes that the camera will capture it for us. However, a different study was conducted suggesting that the act of taking a photograph itself allows the subject to be more immersed with the experience, since they are now focused in capturing the moment.
Personally both has its merits; If we are out on a quest to capture photographs (like a safari or one of those Instagram museums) — then ofcourse taking a photo would be more enjoyable. However, any other activity would take us away from the space we are standing in. Think about it like this, while things are continuously moving around you— you are fiddling with your phone trying to capture something that probably is just going to your iCloud, never to be seen again.
Our phones has removed the cap over how much photos we can take in a day — thus increasing the amount of time for us to be removed from our current environment.
10 Years In the Cloud
The oldest photo I have stored in the cloud was 2010 — from then, every single photo I have taken from my phone has been backed up, ready for me to comeback to it. The problem is, I never do.
The collection of images just made me automatically “group” things as I go, instead of actually viewing them.
“Oh these are when I went to Mt. Rainier” or “yeah that was a pretty fun night”
If each image is to tell a story, and we have 100 of the same image, then none of them are unique. In fact, we may accidentally skip over an image, although similar, that tells a different story. It was definitely intimidating to see the 100+ Coachella photos that I have stored in the cloud, and the awkward moment where I tell people to wait as I try to find the one good photo.
So what should we do? Delete them.
I went through 10 years of photo, and for every day I passed through — I deleted the duplicates, I deleted the weird one-off shots, I deleted those blurry shots (unless it was intentional). I deleted everything that did not ring any bell, and let the photos in my gallery reflect what has happened on that exact moment.
It was a difficult process.
We took these photos because we want to remember the moment, and deleting them just felt like we destroyed part of our story. To me what hurts the most was not remembering why that photo exist to begin with — but what was the reason I decided to take it, and did capturing it take me away from the moment when everything was happening.
Another Alternative
If for some reason deleting photos are difficult for you, consider leveraging social media as a means to organizing your memory. Apps like Instagram limits the amount of photos you can share in a post — maybe this can be your way of grouping the top 10 (or better yet, 1) into a particular story with its own unique captions that can help you remember your moment.
With all the flack social media has against our mental health, there are still ways we can use this to make us feel better!
What’s Next for Me
For me, taking photos and videos has been part of the story that I wanted to tell as I do try to create content for Instagram or YouTube. Because of this I am always looking for a moment, looking for that backdrop that does help me observed the surrounding more. Of course once all of the filming is done, I put my cameras back in my pocket and continue on my journey.
When the dust settles, I then go back, view and start deleting them as I picked the ones I liked to be shared.
This article was inspired by a video by Johnny Harris
