I sometimes find photographs too nostalgic and find they can often make me feel sad for time having passed. For example my sister who is ten years younger than me, photos of us together when she was little, I know I will never get that time back, where as in my memory -it is still there but the moment the photo was taken has gone.

We watched the last episode of Six Feet Under recently where Clare leaves home and takes a picture of the family on the doorstep. Nate says to her “you can’t take a picture of this, it’s already gone”.

Just watched it again on Youtube and am now in tears! Sob!

When I was young, I hated the idea of taking photos and video, because I was aware that it changes the way you look at things. Makes you less able to appreciate them as they actually are, and as you say, it changes the way you remember things too. Of course, as I get older, I appreciate my mums point of view more and more – she takes photos because she’s aware of the frailty of her memory and she’s afraid of losing the moments.

I actually that many people will have less records of their early life now than before. When I celebrated my grandfathers 90th birthday recently, the people who came had looked through boxes in attics and newspapers, and they had photos of his childhood. Now, it just takes a single server crash, or the theft of a laptop (as happened to me), and those photos are gone for ever.

It means that we don’t randomly strike up conversations with people who happen to be in the same place as us. As placedness decreases, so does serendipity.

We still want serendipity, but we want to give up as little control as is necessary, so we increase our placedness online, through things like virtual spaces, or facebook. There, because you are in a place, you can have the chance meetings with others in that place that lead to something fruitful.

When I have a lot of images of something to remind of a time or place I forget other aspects of it.

Remember when we got married – we didn’t want to video record the day so that we had to remember the whole day for ourselves. We were worried that we might only remember the parts that were videoed after having watched it a lot.

I wonder if children will benefit from so much information about themselves or if they will rely on it as ‘this is what happened when’ rather than their own memory of an experience.

On a more sombre note – if when you die your whole life flashes before your eyes – that will be interesting! I wonder if it is from your perspective or from a slight distance.