Lately I haven’t been taking as many photos as I’ve used to. I’m always interested in seeing photos that were taken many years ago for the nostalgia, but lately I haven’t been taking any pictures, which means a lack of photos for me to look back on in the future. I haven’t been finding them as valuable, even though I get a kick out of seeing a photo from years ago and reminiscing about the past.

I was partly enlightened while listening to episode 28 of Cmd+Space some time last year. It’s a great episode with John Roderick. About 20 minutes into the podcast, John talks about the current culture to “compulsively record things,” and that some people don’t believe something happened if there isn’t a picture of the event as well. Or rather, they’re disappointed that there aren’t any pictures. So I’ve been taking much fewer photos lately, and I don’t feel like I’ve been missing out on much.

By not taking pictures of anything and everything, I feel that I’m more focused of my surroundings and the people around me and less on capturing the moment with a few photos. It’s very much a Look Up argument (though I still constantly use a computer).

It’s easier to forget without photos, which leads me to choose what memories to cherish mentally.

Here’s to more valued memories.