Anurag Yagnik

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What will photos mean to them?

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Taking photos of your kids and deliberately obsessing over them has become quite a modern pastime (interestingly enough, "pastime" is something you do not just to pass time...). As a society we are now collectively experimenting with the collection, storage, archival and eventual impact (if any) of taking 1,000s of photos of our kids a year. Contrast that to even 10 years ago - we were restricted to about a 1,000 in a lifetime. We have to wait a few years, maybe a decade to understand the meaning of this experiment. (It is a different matter that most of us will actually lose most or all of our photos because we won't back them up so we may never actually find out what this means collectively as a society.)

Will kids remember their childhood better? Will parents better remember their children growing up? Will this bring families closer? Will this just make the pain of eventual separation worse or will it give something to still hold on to? Something that will remain with you even when the subjects mostly move on?

This will aid memory, no doubt. That is not the question. The question is will this make memories fonder or will it create yet another thing your kids will resent you for. I hear they end up resenting you for stranger things or actually... most things. I can so imagine a - "My dad had like soooo much free time that he wasted taking all these pictures instead of like connecting with me in a meaningful way". 

Reminds me of one of my favorite lines ever from one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors.