www.theotherpress.ca

OPINIONS.

 

Autosave

Ihe memory on our
hard drive versus the
memory in our head

Alliat
Chan
‘Opinions Editor

gine ithethepeso

 

 

bout 200 years ago, the

first photograph was taken
and a new human obsession
was born. The fascination with
capturing “the moment” has
travelled through time and
led us here to a digital world
where Facebook contains over
240-billion photographs. So
what is it like living on a planet
where 350-billion photos are
taken annually worldwide in
addition to the over 3.5-trillion
already in existence? My guess is
that those poses, those beautiful
views, and those first steps by
little baby Susan will inevitably
be lost beneath all the other
mundane images out there.

Remember Kodak moments,
when every photo taken was
an investment for the future
and a memory worth sharing?
I do. When I was young, my
family only brought out the
analogue camera for special
occasions such as birthday
parties, vacations, or school
performances. I wasn’t allowed

to touch it until ] was 10-years-
old, because memories were
precious and my mother would
always fear overexposure. Film
was pricey, developing it even
more so—my parents knew
certain things were worth the
cost and others weren't.

Hard drive spaces are cheap
and getting cheaper. Soon we'll
be able to upload our lives onto
a terabyte external hard drive,
plug it into to a projector, and
have all our memories play
out during our funeral. Our
loved ones can gather around
crying and laughing about
our tomfoolery and our bits
of achievements. But what
substance do those images really
have for us during the course of
our lives?

Sometimes I look at pictures
of myself; it might be me during
a night out with friends, or
maybe a group photo with
my family. Oftentimes, I come
away with a vague memory,
like waking up in the morning
and trying to recollect a dream.
There are just so many—how
can I be certain that I’m even
remembering correctly?

We have all become
photojournalists, reporting on
and documenting our own lives.
But can it be that the more we
capture to showcase, the more
we are losing for ourselves? The
more we rely on the memories of

a machine, the more we inhibit
the capacity of our own brains.
During a vacation to
Kelowna this year, my mother
insisted that I take as many
pictures as possible—for
the sake of my family. I was
unenthused by the idea of
being my mother’s personal
cameraman. Instead of enjoying
the scenery or the moment, she
was too busy trying to capture
“the moment.” There is still a
slight social stigma for those
who hurry about taking pictures
in situations that don’t call for it,
but the taboo is quickly fading.
The moments are becoming
less and less valued, because
apparently they’re everywhere
now. The food we eat, a ray of
sun through the trees, and of
course little Susan’s first steps
are now all worth the same 8.4
megapixels, but how do they
really measure in our memories?
All the photography apps
on our smartphones are making
it harder and harder to keep
track of which images we
want to frame and which are
disposable. Find time, sit down,
go through all the pictures in
your life, and ask yourself, “Do
I remember this?” Then separate
the images into two piles: the
yes and the no. See which one
you have more of, because
certain things shouldn’t be
automatic.

 

Jaceys all about the probiotics | Photo courtesy of Joel McCarthy

 

Millennials, schmi

We aren't all that bad (or
at least not that much
worse than our parents)

Shoron Miki, Contributor

We you born sometime
around the 1980s or
‘90s? Well, then you must be
an entitled, lazy asshole who
pouts around your parents’
basement in a murky pool of
your own consumer debt and
underemployment because you
didn’t get your fantasy job—as
an astronaut, or whatever—
immediately after high school.
And you're probably really
whiny about it, too.

No? Is that a harsh and
pointless overgeneralization
of millions of people? Not
according to mounting public
opinion in recent years, which
is epitomized in the recent viral-
lite essay “Why Generation

 

 

 

Y Yuppies Are Unhappy,”
published in the Huffington Post.

The essay offers waves of
condescending faux-concern
for the socioeconomic plight
of today’s youth, positing that
so-called “yuppie” members
of “Generation Y” (i.e. born
between the mid-1970s to the
mid-1990s) are unhappy and
floundering because they have
set too-high expectations for an
easy, special-rainbow-unicorn
life—and when reality doesn’t
live up to these expectations,
they pout and retreat to their
glitter-infused self-indulgent
corner to rot. This highly
unflattering description of
gen-Y isn’t new: an article
published in Time earlier this
year, “Millennials: The Me Me
Me Generation,” classified
Millennials (born between 1980—
2000) as “lazy, entitled, selfish,
and shallow.”

Am] angry that I’ve been
automatically lumped into a
group that is viewed by its
elders with such disdain? Not

ennials

really. The reason these anti-
Millennial arguments gain
traction is that there is some
truth to certain characteristics
of the generation: many
Millennials were raised to
believe that they could achieve
whatever they wanted if they
tried hard enough; we are, in
fact, the shoot-for-the-stars
generation. Indeed, I have
personally received several
participation medals, and my
parents did encourage me to
find a career that was not only
financially fulfilling, but that I
enjoyed doing. Sue me.

I find this generational
bullying to be narrow-minded,
short-sighted, and largely
counterproductive if our goal
as a society is to encourage
members to be productive
contributors to our culture and
economy.

Millennials and gen-Yers are
still quite young, so it’s pointless
to freak out about us being a lost
generation at this point in time.
Our grandparents tsk-tsked our

baby boomer parents for their
perceived sloth when they were
young (hello, hippies?), but
eventually the boomers grew
up and cut their hair so they
could start shaking their fists at
us. All generations have some
growing pains, but history has
shown that they will inevitably
grow up to take on a mature
perspective. Millennials just
need more time to adjust to the
very different economic climate
than that of their parents’; as we
move into our working lives,
we'll most likely adjust our
expectations to our realities.
Granted, it’s unlikely that
our careers will mimic the 9-to-
5 model set by the boomers. Is
it because—as the Huffington
Post suggests—we think we’re
too good for our parents’ jobs?
Maybe, but I’d suggest that a
lot of this job diversification
stems from a combination of
factors: for one, it takes more
and more education to compete
for prestigious jobs nowadays,
which means more time spent

in school and accumulating debt
before entering the workforce.
Also, there are more diverse,
special-unicorn-style jobs that
young, tech-savvy people may
strive for (for example, “social
media strategist” wasn’t an
option when my dad graduated
in the 1970s, but it is a job that
employs a number of my peers
today).

I know that I’m not a special
snowflake, but I also know
that I’m starting my career in
a dramatically different social
and economic climate than
my parents did 30 years ago.
Without the aid of a DeLorean
time machine, all I can do is
work as hard as I can within the
framework I live in. Besides,
if I want to be a lazy, entitled
asshole, I don’t want to be
lumped together with all of you.
I want to be my own unique
rainbow-unicorn kind of lazy,
entitled asshole—after all, ’ma
‘90s bitch.

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