This picture got a lot of play on Tumblr yesterday. One camp of posters cheered the ubiquity of tiny LCDs as the future of media and personal experience. Another camp jeered those choosing to stare into a small screen instead of letting this historic moment wash over them pure and unfiltered. This same camp argued that people are going out of their way to gain experiences and be at events simply for the ability to document they were there, instead of having some “purer” intent.
I, for one, am a fan of the ubiquitous camera. In fact, I’d go far as to say its one of the primary drivers of social software. I, for one, didn’t use m/any social services until I got my iPhone. That ever present camera and always-on data connection opened up an new world to me. My first foray into social software was my use of Flickr and my iPhone to document the birth of our daughter, Josie (you can see that set here). It didn’t diminish from the experience at all, in fact, I’d say it enhanced it many times over as distant family was able to check-in to Flickr throughout the day and feel connected to an important day in our collective lives. I grew from Flickr to Facebook to Twitter and Tumblr and my life is much more rich and connected because of them. I think I experience things more deeply now as I’m looking out for an interesting shot or listening more intently to hear something that might make a good tweet or blog post.
So I say, bring on more cameras, bring on more connectivity, bring on more applications to capture these moments in time and bring on more people who are heading out into the world to have experiences they can document as opposed to sitting on the couch letting time, friendships and experiences pass them by.
