Charles – thank you for sharing this. What a thoughtful and meaningful way to reflect on the memories you capture.

1: When I take pictures, I don’t just store them away and never look at them. I do things with my pictures every day. I tag them, read about them, view them in slideshows, etc. There are so many cool things that I’ve seen that I didn’t even know I saw “in the moment.” Many historical sites, statues of famous locals, etc. that I would have just forgotten about had I just seen it and walked on. For example, three years ago, I walked through a cemetery in Mexico City to take a shortcut across town. I didn’t think anything much of it. Just yesterday, I looked up the cemetery, and turns out it is the biggest cemetery in all of Mexico! I like to learn about places I’ve been, and being able to refer back to a picture of something, look it up, and learn about it, you learn so much doing that.

2: The memories with modern cameras and pictures are amazing, especially when I take lots of them. For example, I went to Moscow earlier this year, so when I’m thinking about my trip there, I like to put on Russian music and do a slideshow of my pictures, and I feel like I’m re-living my trip.

3: Memory fades, no matter how amazing the moment is when you’re there. I took a lot of fun family trips when was young, and since I wasn’t taking pictures, I remember very, very little of them. When I started taking a lot of pictures on trips, it really helped me remember them, even as years pass since the trip. I travel a lot, spending maybe two months a year away from home, and a lot of the memories would just come and go if I didn’t take pictures.

4: Finally, I agree are people who go too far. People who videotape an entire concert instead of seeing it, people who have to upload everything to social media immediately, people who take selfies at every little landmark, etc. (I never do selfies haha.) But I see nothing wrong with taking pictures of things, looking at them, and moving on. You can reflect on your adventures, share them with others, learn more about things you don’t recognize, etc.

It’s a great point JPH – as long as the experience you want is to capture the moment then you are not missing out on anything

Thank you for sharing this kishmisherie. It really helps to clarify the nuances when you’re purposefully taken photos and when you’re just taking photos for the sake of taking them and actually missing out on the real life experience.

Also, taking pictures and experiencing moments deeply are not mutually exclusive–as long as you are not taking pictures ALL the time. For example, you can truly enjoy a wonderful dinner with friends being in each moment, savoring it and then later gather together for a picture to keep the memory alive. Then you don’t miss out and you get to keep a record of all the people you were with as well as the food you ate. Now, if you keep taking pics of your food, of each person and every single moment or even just a lot of moments, THEN you are distracted and can’t really enjoy your food or your company fully.
So it really depends on how you’re taking those pics.

Sometimes when you’re having the experience you can’t really take pics of it. E.g. if you’re diving, then you can’t really take pics while you’re diving (and if you do, that’s crazy and very unsafe) so there is no chance or fear of missing out. Most likely you will take a pic *before* you dive or after or ask someone else to do it. Nothing wrong with that.