The other morning I stood at my kitchen window and the most glorious scene appeared before my eyes…a bright, beautiful sunrise over the mountains.

Here it is!

What did I do?  I grabbed my phone to capture the moment.  I snapped the photo, reviewed the image, cropped out part of the neighbor’s roof, and ran down the hall to show my husband.  Darn, he was still asleep!  What did I do next?  Posted it to Facebook, of course!

What is wrong with this picture?

In attempting to capture the moment, I totally became detached from the moment.  I physically walked away from the beautiful scene that was taking place right before my eyes.  When I returned a few minutes later, the moment I was so intent on capturing was gone…forever.

How often have you found yourself so caught up in capturing a moment, that you lost the moment altogether?

I love the fact that I can easily take quality pictures with my phone.  What I don’t love, is that some of my experiences are losing their essence because I’m choosing to view them, in part, through a screen.

It’s estimated that as many as 880 billion photos will be taken worldwide in 2014, with over 200,000 uploaded to Facebook every minute.  EVERY minute!

Our obsession with over-documenting everything is adversely affecting our lives.  Here’s how:

Losing a moment you can’t get back…
Here’s a question to pose to ourselves: Is it worth losing part of the experience in order to better remember it in the future?  Hmm….chew on that for a minute.

Obviously each situation is different and we all have photos that we cherish and wouldn’t want to part with for anything.

I think the key take away here is to practice intentionality and moderation.

Adverse Health Effects…
Experts have warned that the obsession with recording and sharing every moment could have an adverse effect on our memories.

We need to allow our brains to properly process our experiences to fully retain the memory.  I don’t know about you, but I have a problem retaining things even when I’m really trying!  How much worse can it be when our attention is divided by fiddling with a camera?

Relationships suffer…
Relationships can suffer when constantly documenting our lives.  When we become so intent on getting just the right shot, we miss out on just being together and allowing the moments to come and go naturally.

Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of Alone Together, warns us not to confuse over-documenting and sharing our lives online as authentic connection.  “It’s hard to settle into serious conversations with ourselves and with other people because emotionally, we keep ourselves available to be taken away from everything.”

So…next time you are headed out, consider leaving your camera behind.  Enjoy the freedom and richness of experience this allows.

Live fully in each moment — you’ll never have another one just like it.

As always, I appreciate your input.  Can you relate to the compulsion to over-documenting life with your camera?  Please leave your comments below.

Jill xx

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