Simplicity

Recently Heather and I have been discussing the digital footprint we are leaving in the world. More to the point, the digital footprint we are leaving for our daughter.

As we move on in the world and become ever so much more connected, I fear that we are actually starting to lose ourselves a bit. People no longer have time to connect personally and, often, verbal conversations have to wait until their online, textual brethren are finished.

It’s annoying really.

I’ll periodically scroll through Facebook and Twitter, and after about 10-15 minutes I invariably come up more bored than when I started. I read absolutley nothing of value on these sites anymore. And often, when I actually post something, I constantly check to see if anyone has liked or retweeted or commented on my latest words of wisdom. I have begun to revel in the affirmation of my peers. When that affirmation does not come, I actually feel sad, and in some cases, angry.

It’s somewhat an addiction, I fear. I read an article the other day saying that the affirmation we get through these sites often impacts us in the same way drug use impacts a junkie. Our pleasure centers are stimulated and we find our selves wanting more, more, more.

It’s a different landscape now than when we were growing up. There are no photo albums anymore that parents can populate and hold until their child brings home a date for the first time, prompting the inevitable showing of the naked baby pictures. Now, childhood is captured online, often artistically filtered through some kind of lens.

With Channing, we are constantly posting pictures, and have been since she was born five months ago. As she gets older, whats stopping some enterprising pre-teen bully from looking up her mug online and reposting some ancient shot of her shirtless and screaming when she was an infant? Or worse?

I think as we move forward into this brave new world, we may restrict the postings we put up of our little girl. As we move faster and faster into the future that WALL-E promised us, I’d like to at least give her some degree of choice.