For the love of analog

The stories of my parents and grandparents past lives always intrigued me. As they relayed their childhood and young adult years, the images began to materialize before me through the eyes of their past selves.

It should be no surprise that among my favourite books were from times before the advent of the internet. Of a time before the sudden rampant pervasiveness of technology, before it reshaped the way we live countless times even within my own lifetime.

One of the benefits of the collector mindset of my father is that he eventually wants to pass on the artifacts that he carefully curated throughout the years. Especially lucky for me, one such item of interest purchased with his newly disposable income were analog cameras. 

Growing up, I would either have my nose in a book or would create a world to keep myself entertained as I was taken around to all my parents and siblings appointments. I hardly ever thought of myself as bored, because my mind continuously whirred to keep me entertained.

It was only through visits to other people's houses or through chatter at school that I realized I was missing a whole other world. My classmates would rehash the latest television show episodes, family friends would chat about their Neopets, I saw my older sibling connecting with friends through ICQ and MSN Messenger.

 

I can't say that I felt completely left out. I didn't exactly understand how to use the internet, my sibling hogged the single dial-up connection, my dad was always tuned into sports or the news on the television, and I personally was terrified of potentially scary shows I might come across while channel surfing.

During my first overnight field trip, I was given a disposable camera to capture the occasion. With no understanding of how to use it, I jokingly snapped photos of my friends and random things before realizing that even if the flash didn't go off, the film was being used up.

As the digitalization of the world hit the realm of photography, the sudden unlimited aspect of photo-taking allowed my friends and I to take countless terrible photos and videos of each other.

I distinctly remember people commenting why we would take photos of our food, of close-up and unflattering photos of our faces, of our hands and feet in different formations. What would we possibly do with all these photos?

The advent of social media easily answered that question. Countless Facebook albums later, the engagement and outrage of the comments made the addition of a camera a must at every hangout.

Thinking of myself as somewhat of a shutterbug, and with much reluctance from my mother, I enrolled myself in photography classes at my high school. My only prior experience with film being my short stint with the disposable camera, the process of adapting to black and white film on a clunky SLR was harder than anticipated.

The feeling of disappointment and dread when you realized your exposures were terrible, or messing up your film during the development stage, or using the wrong chemicals and ruining the expensive print paper your parents had to purchase for this class... only to see how juvenile your final products turned out to be. Why would anyone prefer film?

After years of living with a camera in my pocket, and many terabytes of cloud storage that was undoubtedly a contributing factor to Google removing the free uploads for their phones... The child who was never bored, now had to numb her mind to the world in order to decompress. Perhaps the pursuit of convenience is perpetuating the laziness of my life. And maybe, just maybe, not all experiences should turn into lasting memories.