Digital Babies

May 21, 2012

On March 1st, 2011, my nephew Abel entered this digitalized world of ours where no event or thing is too trivial or inappropriate to capture. To the dismay of the camera Gods no doubt, something banal as eating a sandwich has become a picture moment these days as has the fine art of nostril digging I am sure. Between our cameras, our cell phones, and computers, we have been able to capture just about everything that hits our eyes and enters our ever-expanding imagination.

A complicated armpit, an exotic foot rash, everyday items like shoes, bags, and even something as uninspiring as a ceiling have become picture-worthy today.

No longer are cameras reserved for special and meaningful occasions like birthdays, graduations and weddings. Today, every second brings a picture-worthy moment. We can thank the digital explosion for that; in the days of "film," we simply couldn't have afforded or tolerated the level of picture-taking that goes on today. And this, in a way, has made pictures meaningless. Just ask my confused mother who always observes with great bewilderment at the site of my sister (and me) capturing Abel's every "adorable" moment. My sister has one of those magical iPhones that has made such enterprise possible. For my mother, who was born and raised in rural Ethiopia, where cameras were nonexistent, it all seems a little nutty. Of course, she always smiles and says her grandson looks cute when we eagerly show her the images, but also never forgets to ask the meaning of incessant picture taking.

“I don’t know what you guys are going to do with all these pictures,” is what she always says in genuine confusion.

My sister and I always laugh, fully knowing that she’s right. Not only are we snapping up and storing images that will never be printed, but we are also looking to build an overwhelming collection of images that will most likely be reviewed with very little interest. By the time Abel hits 18, indeed, he will have inspired thousands of images,10 or even 20 thousand perhaps. Yet neither Abel or his parents will be remotely interested in reviewing them all. It'd just be too overwhelming. That doesn't mean they'll be deleting anything, though.

Once an image is captured, it becomes almost a sin to delete.

~Addis