“The more you document your own life, the more you check in, you tweet, the more you post photos of what you did last night, the more you do all of this stuff, or even in my case, the more you listen for little lines of dialogue that can make their way into stories, the more you photograph moments, in a way, the more you start to step out of those moments, and if you do that too much, you become a spectator to your own life.”
– Jonathan Harris
A quote from Jonathan Harris’ CreativeMornings talk.
the struggle lays between the documentation and the determination to not remove yourself from the moments.
Aug 3rd, 2012 / 11:42 am
I think it’s very important take pictures and share this happy moments and it don’t mean I’m a spectator of my life, I’m the most important people in my own life *-*
Aug 3rd, 2012 / 8:30 pm
this reminds me of an interview i heard with george clooney. he was saying how people are too obsessed documenting everything. when he’s at the red carpet, he literally has his hand outstretched to shake people’s hands but what do they do instead? they take pictures of him through their camera phones instead of grabbing his hand back. hello???
Aug 4th, 2012 / 12:12 am
Perhaps a good idea or guide is to maintain good Tech-etiquette.
Aug 4th, 2012 / 5:44 pm
For me I hope to achieve dynamic balance of living, documentation, contemplation and gratefulness. Without contemplation we risk continuing habits that no longer serve us and without gratefulness we risk living without appreciation.
Aug 4th, 2012 / 11:02 pm
Happy and Kranky – techiquette…? :)
Aug 5th, 2012 / 8:45 pm
If we have the first & third person experience…do we become more intense about tailoring our lifestyle, choices, and activities b/c “everyone is going to see it”? Maybe somethings become shunned while other things openly embraced w/o care for “who’s watching”? Do we then become our better selves? hmm…
Aug 6th, 2012 / 5:07 pm
I will agree for the most part, but add a caveat that if you are a parent or in any other significant relationship, you should take a good amount of photos of your children or other loved ones. You’ll bolster your memories. You shouldn’t take photos instead of participating. You’ll never have a full enough life if you do that, but the present ease and ubiquity of photography affords us the opportunities to remember events and people in a way we could not in previous eras. Back then, film was precious, and a roll of film was apportioned out in 12, 24, or 36 photos and that may have been all you had. Nowadays, it is easy to take 100 photos at a family gathering and not even waste that much time doing it. If you do it right, you’ll have memories and scrapbooks. My favorite photos are the quickly taken incidental ones of my kids. It was well worth the few seconds invested.
Aug 7th, 2012 / 1:51 am
I think this is definitely linking to facebook so much here. So many people post pictures of their family and themselves on facebook. It is all about them on here. Your paper shredding choice
Jan 17th, 2013 / 1:03 pm