documentation

i was at a concert the other day and i had my camera with me. i decided i wanted to video tape one of the songs. halfway through the song, i found myself watching the artist through my camera screen (to make sure the footage looked okay) and i started thinking about how stupid it was of me to watch him through a screen, like i always can, instead of enjoying the concert and watching him live, which i usually don't get the opportunity to.

and ever since that concert i've been thinking about how we as a society feel the need to document everything.

there's a running joke at my school about how the teacher in charge of the yearbook and the morning announcements is always walking around with a camera taking pictures of everything. we make fun of that habit of hers all the time. but i've been thinking about how, even though we make fun of it, we still do the same thing.

for some reason, we seem to feel like everything needs to be documented. all the good moments, all the bad, everything. it's gotten to the point where we feel like we have to document everything instead of living it.

now, i know i do this. i gave that example above. and since i am a youtuber, i often find myself thinking "this would be great to film and put in my next video" even if i don't actually film it.

but i've also learned how much more enjoyable everything is if you just live it rather than spend the whole time making sure you'll remember every last little detail.

for example, last night, i went to a dance at my school. it was a lot of fun. i did not spend the night taking pictures or videos, i just spent the night enjoying myself. i really did have a ton of fun, especially since the guy that i went with is the guy i've liked for a while now (since i'm awk, i'm only admitting this on here since the chances of him finding this blog are very, very, very slim. i don't even think he knows i have a blog or that i make youtube videos...). we spent the night dancing and talking and generally having fun.

however, i'm now going through and looking at all the pictures that people took of me and reliving the night through other people's eyes, but with my opinions. i'm looking at pictures of myself and thinking "eww, did i really look like that? grosssss." because of this, i've started to worry about if i really looked as bad all night as i did in those pictures and whether or not other people *coughtheguyiwentwithcough* thought i looked that bad, which i was honestly having too much fun to even think about last night. honestly, it takes that memory, which was a great one, and starts to lower how good i felt about it.

this has made me wonder whether or not this obsessive habit of documenting our lives is good for us as a generation, or society, or whatever.

yes, being able to remember all the good times you had is something everyone wants.
however, when those good memories are ruined by being able to remember them, is it really any better than just forgetting them?