Both of my parents have attempted (and partially succeeded) in giving me hundreds of family photos. As they are both are getting up in age, they know I’m the only one in my family would might digitize these images and of course, there are a handful they want to share on Facebook.
At first, I jumped at this opportunity. I mean, this was a look into my childhood that I don’t actually have. A way to archive my past and unlock those memories. But as I began working through the photos, scanning them, editing them, and so forth, I realized this was A LOT of work. And well… I started to question why I was doing this.
When I was in the third grade, I remember having a fire safety lesson and all of the students were asked what one item they would grab in the event of a fire. Our answered ranged from silly to serious, but the teachers in the classroom all agreed that they would grab the photo albums and that would be the most important item because it could not be replaced
I believe this imprinted on me at an early age that photos are extremely valuable. I’m personally great at deleting the photos I take, but physical photos my parents or grandparents took I struggle with. I mean, these were the moments they deemed important with their limited amount of film. Shouldn’t I archive all of this?
The truth is, I don’t have kids and most likely will not. My brother also will not have kids. My bloodline will end with us. There is nobody to archive these photos for. No generation that will care to see them. I will not share these memories or stories with anyone other than the internet where I occasionally utilize one or two of these photos, I run across to show off a retro toy or clothing item. So, is truly worthwhile for me to go out of my way to try and preserve hundreds (probably a thousand or two) photos armed with a flatbed scanner and my free time? I don’t think so.
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