Do you keep old photos of people who are no longer in your life? A conversation with my daughter this week made me consider the impact of the digital age on how we save and share photos. And I wonder if younger generations will come to regret erasing part of their personal history.
Welcome to the 88th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. Along with old photos, this week’s edition looks at plogging, and decluttering winter outerwear.
On my mind this week: Old photos and memories
Earlier this week, my daughter commented that when people her age break up with their partner, or have friends they no longer see, they go through their social channels and remove all pictures of those people.
This brought back memories of my mum pasting a picture of my brother-in-law over the image of my sister’s ex-fiancé in a family portrait taken years earlier. We often joke that mum was photo editing long before anyone had heard of Photoshop.
Joking aside, the conversation with my daughter did make me wonder if young people will ever regret erasing part of their history by deleting pictures of people who are no longer in their lives.
In my photo albums, I have pictures of old boyfriends, and friends I no longer see. And I have pictures of school classmates and acquaintances I never particularly liked to begin with. But the people and experiences in those pictures served a purpose—they shaped the person I became.
Memories in the digital age
I suppose the difference between those old paper photo albums and photos in the digital age is that social media has an annoying habit of popping images up in your feed as memories. And depending on privacy settings, those pictures are out there for anyone to see. To see my old pictures, I have to make the effort to drag out my dusty old photo albums, and I can’t imagine someone breaking into my house to creep my old photos.
With the wisdom of age, and the perspective of time, I can look at those old pictures and recall the memory of that time of my life, and even that person, for what it was and how it influenced the person I became. I wouldn’t want to erase that.
I’m curious. If you break up with a romantic partner, or have a falling out with a friend, do you keep pictures of you with that individual, or do you erase all evidence of them from your life? Drop me a comment below and let me know.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- I got the final mark for my Strategies in Audience Analysis course: 96%.
- It has been a week of catching up with friends. On Tuesday, I met up with a former work colleague for coffee and a catch up. Then on Friday, my high school girlfriends and I went out for the latest instalment of our ABCD lunch series. C is for The Cookhouse Bistro in Rockton.
- My daughter Laura arrived home from British Columbia for a visit on Friday night. While we joke that she’s only here to see Taylor Swift and we’re just a sideshow, I’m happy to have her home for a few days!
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. It was a busy week, so I just have one little nugget to share.
Ploggers, plakers and plikers?
No, I haven’t lost it and digressed into some strange language. Plogging is an activity that combines jogging with picking up litter. The term has been around since 2016 and blends the Swedish words “plocka upp”, meaning “pick up”, with the English word for jogging.
And if you’re not a jogger, you could try plaking (pickup up garbage while walking), or pliking (picking up garbage while biking) instead.
(Source: Happy Eco News)
This week’s decluttering challenge – Winter outerwear
In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. Winter is on the way, so this week’s challenge was coats, boots and other winter outerwear. In total, I decluttered 6 items. Find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.
Join the challenge! Visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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Social media has changed everything in terms of capturing memories. I understand why some people don’t want to have any part of it because there is a segment that feels fake and disingenuous. I also roll my eyes why some people seem to have this constant need to highlight even the most mundane things.
Plogging is a new term for me. I would never have even thought of combining jogging with litter pick up.
I agree Pete. So much of what I see on social media feels fake. I love it for keeping in touch with my family overseas so I try to ignore the negativity and embrace the good.
As for plogging, there is a couple in our neighbourhood who pick up litter when they walk their dog. I wonder what the term for what would be!
Oh — I just heard about ‘plogging’ this week. I like it! And oh….my…goodness…I’m still procrastinating about tending to the tidying that’s much needed re: photos. I have no wisdom! 😜
Yes. I like the idea of plogging, although I think I’d be much more of a plaker than a plogger! 😂 I know what you mean about the pictures. I made some progress but there is much more to do.
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Such an interesting thought about digital photos. Hmm, it is a curious contrasts. And I love ploggers, plakers and plikers! What a combo!
I suppose that’s one of the downsides of social media. Those “memories” it pops up can be good or bad. And yes to plogging, plaking and pliking!
A very fascinating conversation, Michelle. Digital photography has made memories interesting. They are so easy to collect but also seem to be just as easily discarded. I do agree there will be some level of regret for decisions made in emotional haste.
A great point about discarding memories, Ab. That’s one of the saddest things about our society these days. Everything is disposable and that seems to extend to people and relationships.