Are your family memories at risk of being lost forever?
If you’re like us, you probably have hundreds of photos of your baby or young child. But how many actual photos do you have? And how many images of them are trapped in technology that may soon become obsolete – and risk being lost forever?
We recently shared two popular posts from writer Sara Bran – one describing the day she realised she was Wanker Mum, and the other claiming that she was more rock and roll than Keith Richards.
Today, she worries that while we’re merrily thinking that we’re more connected and photo-happy than ever in our switched-on digital age, we’re actually risking losing a precious part of our children’s (and our own) histories.
I couldn’t find a picture of my child
The other day, I was asked to produce a baby photo of my youngest child, and I couldn’t. With a wave of nausea, I realised that every moment I have recorded of my youngest daughter’s life has been digital. And I haven’t been organised about it either.
I sat on the floor with the defunct hard drive that contains the Biscuit Thief’s baby pictures. The connection needed to access the photos is not compatible with my latest computer. And all their other photos are on a PC that no one, apart from cavemen, use anymore.
The rapidity of change in digital technologies is blisteringly clear in the difference between the photographic record of my teenager’s life (born 1996, box of photos in the attic) and that of my second child (born in 2005, diddly-squat in the attic). This problem is big, and it’s getting bigger.
Does it matter if we don’t pass on memories?
So I’m worrying. I’m worrying about history, but I’m also wondering about whether it matters that I haven’t diligently archived my family’s past. There were, after all, generations before photography, video and audio recording, and we can only guess what our ancestors looked, moved and sounded like.
Is my lack of a tangible record of my children’s past any worse than the edited histories we have received down the years? Whole chunks of information and images have been discarded over time, deemed unworthy of preservation on (usually) racist or sexist grounds. History has always been selective, and the recording of it highly subjective.
Nothing we share today is permanent
I’m thinking that we live out a strange dichotomy. We think we are in an era of information saturation – that we are recording everything, enjoying this weird intimacy over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social channels. But actually, none of it is tangible.
“All that is solid melts into air,” said Marx of modernity. This intimacy is fleeting, a firework in the night sky, a brush against a stranger. There is a disconnect between what we share, what is evanescent and what has permanence. History feels precarious at the same time as being collectively experienced over social media.
I long to see a photo of my great, great grandmother’s face
My memory is lit up by palpable things – like my father’s handwriting on old birthday cards, or my aunt’s silk dress, still mapping the contours of her body. Nearly six feet tall, she must have been an elegant woman with exquisite taste to own such a dress.
My great, great grandmother’s engagement ring reveals that the central diamond, cut in Europe, was at some point removed from its original setting and cast in another in New York in the late 1800s. It tells me more about her life than a photograph.
Yet I long to see her, to know her face. I yearn to know whether it is from her that I get my freckles and strawberry blonde hair. I wonder about the quality of her skin and the way her mouth naturally set when she was unaware anyone was looking. Only a photograph can show me that.
How I’m finally getting my digital act together!
Thinking about all this has inspired me to get my digital act together and create tangible histories by printing off photo books for my children.
In search of solutions, I tried out 23 Snaps, an app and website which allows you to upload photos to a central server and share your photostream with invited guests. You, and anyone else you invite, can compile and order beautiful printed books, all from within the app.
A friend of mine also recommends Photobox, and every six months or so, she compiles and prints off another photo album. There are other services such as Jessops and Snapfish, but I have yet to find a good way to preserve video. Any ideas? I’d love to know what works for you. How do you log your life?
Sara Bran is a writer, content provider and social media trainer though her company Handheld Media.
