Do you remember those old Polaroid camera’s? My generation rode out their existence and the decline of their popularity in the early 2000’s. They were the go to thing for capturing moments before digital and the rise of instagram. I’m not sure this generation could even survive without filters but something more than nostalgia makes me wish they were still around.
While instagram’s chief purpose is to capture moments like those old Polaroid camera’s once did I believe it really falls short. Not saying I am against instagram or anything because I have one (@iamekklesia) but in my honest opinion it leaves me wanting. I would say for most people instagram, like most social media, tends to rob us of moments more often than it captures them. When was the last time you did not check your social media for more than a couple of hours? Honestly I believe it can be a great resource but overall it has done more damage than good. I am going to stop there. I assure you this post is not some caveman rant about how bad technology is but rather about that thing we are all so hell-bent on capturing; THE MOMENT!
As an adolescent I would religiously bring a Polaroid camera to school ever year. In hopes of capturing those moments that I knew could not be repeated. Eventually I traded in that old Polaroid for a brick of a Sony video camera. Anxiously capturing video after video and picture after picture. My friends, our teachers, kids walking down the hall, messages, jokes, goofy faces, and stuff that makes my friends and I look like total crazy people. It was important to me because honestly as I feared that is all I have left of most of those friendships. Those moments, pictures, and videos were personal and tangible. Those moments were all that existed then.
That persistence in capturing moments eventually was drowned out by life and an unhealthy obsession of what tomorrow held rather than what was going on in this present moment. There are so many distractions. So much time is spent wasted consumed in looking at other people’s moments rather than making our own. We live vicariously through our phone screens hoping that tomorrow may one day be like that of our latest instagram obsession. The primary lesson I have learned over the last two years is to simply be HERE and NOW. Put down your phone. Log out of social media. Take some time to soak in your surroundings. Take some pictures and do not upload them. Be here and now. Life is happening around you so do not miss it. We only have one shot at this thing! Your moment is waiting on you!
Ryan Cagle 