Pictures...

I've been an advocate for anti-facebook lifestyles. There's a part of me that hates the idea of sitting around doing nothing except vicariously living through a social media medium such as Facebook. I've tried to get rid of it a few times but to no avail, it finds it's way back to me. It gets old. Sure, I 'like' things and share things... it's usually when I get really bored. Lately it's been a bit more often. I'm not very mentally stimulated at work and all I really want to do is sleep.

Aside from my opinions of what the 'information age' and the advent of text messaging has done to people, I think of another cool aspect of it.

I see a lot of people posting pictures of their babies and kids and all that family crap that I (un?)fortunately don't have to deal with at this point in my life. How cool would it be though, to be one of these kids all grown up and be able to see an entire timeline of your life. I can only go back to when Facebook started to see my timeline but in twenty some years, people will be able to have an entirely new way of revisiting childhood memories.

As I was thinking about this, I tried to think back as far as I could into my past. I remember little things here and there. Like the... ehh, nevermind what I remember. Seems to me that although social media is a joke for the most part, it could actually have some long term effects on relationships and families in a good way. Those that have been born into it can use it to chronologically document their existence without it feeling like an intrusion as it does to people like me.

For those of us not born into Facebook, imagine if you were able to see your childhood as a Facebook timeline. Some long distant aunt that you never quite knew would be nothing more than a 'mutual friend' away from reconnecting with or remembering the memories. Videos of your first steps could be replayed. All those embarrassing photos and stories would have a new meaning since they not only live in the memories but in a real life database of your life.

This last year of blogging has been interesting, if anything only for me. I can click back to a post in February or January... or even the first post and I can piece together who I am now compared to who I thought I would be from a year ago. If only I could go back 25 or 30 years to read in black and white what was on my mind...