Infinite Video

    My friend posted a video of her 3 year old daughter the other day. She was making different faces, an angry face , a surprised face, a happy face. It was absolutely adorable. As I watched, I realized that my friend probably has tons of pictures and videos of her daughter since the day she was born. And so does everyone else who has kids born in the past 10 years. I often wonder how this constant video will affect how children of that generation will perceive themselves as they grow up.
    When I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s my family had a camera and we would take photos at special events: birthdays, holidays and vacations. Most families who had cameras probably did the same. Of course many families took photos on other occasions as well, maybe just for fun. In 1980 when I was 12, my dad bought a video camera. At the time he was one of the few people who owned one. And like the regular family camera, we would use it on special occasions. My dad also taped my younger brother’s little league games and occasionally some of our day trips. This video camera was not easy to take around by the way. The video camera weighed 12 pounds, which alone wasn’t so bad but these early consumer models had no place for a video cassette; you had to connect it to a portable VCR. Our portable VCR had 2 sections. The smaller section stayed on top of the TV. The other section, the heavier one at 18 pounds was the one that played tapes and recorded off the TV. You would take this section with you and put it in a portable carrying case with a shoulder strap. With the camera that’s a total of 30 pounds. Maybe you think that's not so bad but I ask you to consider lugging that camera around Disney World when it’s 90 degrees. My dad did that and suffered what must have been very annoying pains in his shoulder and back for posterity (I have recently digitized some of these old VHS tapes). With the advancement of technology the size of cameras got smaller and cheaper; you could buy a little hand held video camera, maybe HI-8 or mini DV, that could fit in your palm. I remember going to my nephew's kindergarten graduation in the mid-90’s and seeing hordes of parents with little video cameras jockeying for the best positions to shoot from. So there was definitely more video of kids in the 90’s growing up to send to grandma but was still not an everyday thing.

The same VCR and camera my dad bought back in 1980

    Before smartphones became ubiquitous around 2010 you could shoot video on flip phones, but the quality was not great and sending off to someone could be a chore. There also wasn’t the social media infrastructure we have today where you can upload media to various platforms in seconds for all the world to see. Today most people today have smartphones right in their pockets or bags and can shoot HD video at a moment's notice and send it off to facebook or instagram immediately. So children born around 2010, and some more a few years before, have had their entire lives on video, like they were in The Truman Show. And what's more, they will be used to being on video. As they’re growing up they can constantly see themselves on video. They have immediate access to see themselves at 1 or 2 or 5 years old very easily. At 10 years old, children can reflect on their whole lives so far and how they’ve grown and changed. That will continue when they start graduating high school and college, when they get married and start having families of their own.  They will be constantly self aware of themselves. Will this affect the way the interact with people and how the see and think of themselves? Will they be able to remember events and the times between them more fluidly when they've had access video to so much of their lives? If I saw an old photo of my 5th birthday party, a series of information would flow into the forefront of my mind: friends who were there and gifts I received. But there are still many things that would be hazy, like what happened before or after. What If I had a video of the day before and after? What if I had little video snippets of myself throughout my 5th year? It seems maybe a lot of this info would be present in my mind or at least very easy to recall as the brain can only hold so much info on the surface.

How many smartphones exist in the world today?

    This is similar to social media and smart phones in that children have lived their whole lives online with these tools, first through their parents, then on their own. Their interactions and how they are seen online is totally normal for them, that's all they've ever known. I realize all these observations  could become moot in a few years as this generation, the Generation Alphas, grow up and have children who will be immersed with the same infinite video and social media of their parents until some new technology, some sort of Black Mirror-esque technology, separates the generations again and the same questions will arise. But still I wonder how this phenomenon will affect society in the next couple of decades.