Pixel Memories

          Photography has been forever changed by the advent of computer technology, but has the new technology improved our experience with photographs? Are we as attached to the images on our screen as we once were to the photographs in our albums? Are memories built and activated by visual experiences with a photo or is there a tactile component as well? These questions occur to me as I review the slides of my family’s past that I have now spent hours preserving in digital memory banks.
          All of us over 30 can easily remember a favorite photo of our past. One that holds a cloud of special memories that forms every time we hold it in our hand or touch it in a photo album, pointing to some background image or identifying some now-absent family member for a son or granddaughter. Is the experience the same when we peer together at the computer screen? To me, it’s not.
         Something special happens each time that I open a familiar album of photos or hold a particular picture in my hand. At some level, I feel connected to the people in the photo or the event it depicts. Perhaps this is simply a result of past experiences with the photo that are now activated by the visual stimulus of seeing it again. But if that’s the case, why do I not have the same experience when I look at that photo in its digitally preserved state on my computer?
        Touch is probably our least noticed sensory input unless we stub a toe on a chair leg or come in contact with a hot pan on the stove. Yet, even though its input is often ignored in our brain in favor of the latest visual or auditory stimulation, doesn’t the feeling of a loved one’s hand in ours or the stroking of our hair provide a more lasting and pleasurable experience than simply seeing them or hearing their voice? Somehow, physical contact, or at least proximity, with the objects of our memory creates a stronger sensation. Running a finger across a favorite photo or pointing out a nearly forgotten ancestor connects us more with that memory than scrolling down a computer page.
        The same can be said of Skyping or FaceTiming a friend or family member across the miles instead of across the dinner table. It seems likely that we miss nuances of tone or visual clues when those we are communicating with are only viewable on a screen. Will future generations only interact electronically with each other from their solitary posts at glowing devices?
        Hopefully, all this doesn’t sound like the grumpy ramblings of an aging retiree. It’s quite possible that my recent retirement from a career that put me in direct contact with over one hundred people a day in my classroom has caused me to go down this path now that I spend more time alone. I have no beef with the new technology available to all of us today, but I do hope that we do not lose the type of digital connections with our past and present that we have at the end of our arms.

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