I am a proud Gen-Xer. I grew up learning how to play Zork on my TRS-80, and I would go over to my friend Michael’s house to play the better games on his Apple iiE.
I’ll even go so far as to say I’m an outright tech geek. My idea of an awesome week’s vacation would be going to CES in Vegas (although my wife doesn’t see eye to eye with me on that one).
I love tech, and while I may not run right out and get every piece that rolls down the pike (I’m looking at you Google Glass), I celebrate the catalog daily.
With that being said, I also hate tech. I hate that it’s changed our life in ways that are glaringly obvious daily, and in ways we haven’t even comprehended yet. In short, technology has come a long way in a VERY short amount of time, and I don’t think we mere mortals are fully equipped to handle that which we invented from dreams. CBS Sunday Morning actually did a fantastic piece on this just yesterday morning.
You may have heard recently about the ENTIRE photography staff of the Chicago Sun-Times being laid off in favor of teaching their reporters the finer points of iPhone Photography. I won’t even get into how ridiculous that is. I would have preferred the owner(s) to just come out and say “digital is killing us and while we saw this coming years ago, we did nothing, so we offer you these photographers as our sacrifice since our smart phones have this awesome app which allows us to change all our pictures to black and white.”
This got me thinking about weddings and other events we document every year. No doubt you’ve seen countless pictures of what we assume is a very happy bride and groom amid a sea of iPhone screens. Brings a tear to your eye just thinking about it, right? Recently, even those waiting for the new Pope to emerge mostly saw the event through the people holding up THEIR phones and tablets in front of them.
The newest fad which I highly endorse at events like these are called “Unplugged <insert name of lifecycle event here>”. It’s where you’re asked to “virtually” leave your smartphone at the door during all the important parts of the day.
“BLASPHEMY!” you cry out. “I want the world to see real time how happy you are…even if they really can’t see from my picture how happy you are!”
But it’s not blasphemy, and I’m going to tell you why.
Because when you’re doing that, you’re not attending the event as much as you’re reporting it, or even corresponding for it. But the question really becomes…for whom? (Unless you actually happen to be the brand new social columnist for the Chicago Sun Times with a bitchin’ new smartphone.)
Let’s walk through the lifecycle of a picture you take at a wedding:
7:30pm – The image you’ve taken of the officially new “Mr. & Mrs. BFF” is Instagrammed, filtered and released on Facebook, including all the obligatory #hashtagwhatevers.
7:31pm – The only people liking the pictures are your 3 BFFs sitting next to you, who are already on Facebook uploading THEIR pictures to share with the world, and the mutual friend or two who know these people, but not well enough to be invited to take their own pictures to upload to Facebook.
7:33pm – Your picture is now buried on your newly married BFF’s feed because the other 150+ people have uploaded THEIR pictures on Facebook and appropriately tagged the happy couple as well.
2 weeks later – The freshly honeymooned BFFs see the pictures for the first time after they’ve been home for a week, opening presents and commenting on THEIR OWN uploaded pictures of the various drinks and food from some fabulous location in the islands.
See what I’m talking about? Your picture was seen for about 10 minutes and then buried on Facebook, buried on Twitter, and eventually deleted because you need to make room on your smartphone for the fabulous tapas you’ve just ordered at El Vez.
What’s the problem you ask?
I want you to imagine sitting through your favorite movie on TV, but only if you’re watching it through your camera app. What would you miss with your field of vision only focused on a ¼ of the screen? Magicians have been doing this for years. When your mind and eyes are focused on whatever it is they’re drawing your eyes to, you don’t see what’s going on elsewhere.
What about that great show you saw on Broadway…would you have been able to enjoy watching Elphaba defy gravity and rise to her true wickedness if you were only watching it through an Instagram square? What if Book of Mormon was “Vine” of Mormon? You’d have to watch the show in 6 second increments!
My point is that there is so much more to what happens at a wedding that you miss by having your face glued to your screen. You miss the true emotion of what’s happening at that very moment because you’re too busy trying to focus in. Then you’re adding whatever filters and uploading so the world can see the love. Except, unless you’re in the first or second row…you really CAN’T!
At our wedding in 2006, the videographer knocked over the Candelabra next to us during our vows, spilling hot wax all over himself. Had you been staring through your phone looking at us, you never would have seen that happen. Your field of vision would have obscured it. You would have missed the moment.
I’m not telling you that technology has no place at an event. It absolutely does. But the memory of what your EYES can see vs. what your smartphone can see are two totally different things. Your memory of an event will far outlast any picture you take with your smartphone. And if you don’t believe me…think about this.
Your memory never needs to be put into a bag of rice after it was dropped in the toilet.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences – EMAIL US!
About the author: Brian Miller is a multiple award winning photographer and photojournalist. He is also the owner of Chorus Photography in suburban Philadelphia
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