Uploading Photographs

Once upon a time we used to take occasional photographs of family events, interesting scenery or the dog laid out in front of the fire.  It would take an age to snap enough images to fill a 24-exposure film and you only ever bought a 36-exposure if you were feeling flush or going on holiday.  You sent the film away for processing and wait a week or more for the pictures to be returned.  Most of the photographs would be proudly displayed in an album and produced once or twice when family or friends visited.

When would you see that album again?  Probably when moving house or tidying out a cupboard.


These days, every single day of our lives seems to be exposed online for all to see.  138 snapshots of a night out are given an album of their own on Facebook with everyone tagged, including those you met only for five seconds whilst waiting to be served at the bar.  Twitpics (here is where I'm guilty sometimes) of lunch, the mess in the footwell of the car, a book that you're about to start reading, a glass of much-longed for wine.  The documentation of every single hour of our children's lives, including them eating meals, reaching up for a toy, asleep in the car; lots of cuteness but nothing really historic.

Family members and friends used to be able to cope for weeks, or even months, at a time without seeing or hearing about the mundaneness of our everyday lives.  We used to save the special moments for those catch-ups.  Has that now been snatched away because of our ability to share a moment almost in real time?

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