Wow this resonated so deeply with me, I feel a little cracked open actually.
In 2023 for about half the year I posted a photo recap every month on Instagram and really enjoyed it as a way to document my little life, but stopped after my 10 year relationship ended and I needed to conserve my mental energy for myself.
This year I have really leaned in to documenting my daily life with photos and have not felt compelled to go back to sharing them on Instagram, for whatever reason. But every day, usually in the morning, I search that day's month and day in my phone's gallery and look through all the images I have of that date from previous years. I started this habit as a manageable way to deal with my digital clutter and it has turned into a very lovely daily connection with my past.
You've made me want to think about how I want to experience and engage with documenting my life next year. I really love looking through photo albums, so maybe getting into those or photo books will be my 2025 exploration.
Thank you for this post, it was incredibly thoughtful and meaningful to me 💕
I love to hear this Caitlin, and I am so sorry to hear about your relationship and I am sure all the grief surrounding this. I am beginning to think that digital ways of viewing photos creates a subliminal distance between us and the memory, where when they are printed there is nothing between it. I think this can do so much for self-grounding, presence, etc all these things.
Wow this resonated so deeply with me, I feel a little cracked open actually.
In 2023 for about half the year I posted a photo recap every month on Instagram and really enjoyed it as a way to document my little life, but stopped after my 10 year relationship ended and I needed to conserve my mental energy for myself.
This year I have really leaned in to documenting my daily life with photos and have not felt compelled to go back to sharing them on Instagram, for whatever reason. But every day, usually in the morning, I search that day's month and day in my phone's gallery and look through all the images I have of that date from previous years. I started this habit as a manageable way to deal with my digital clutter and it has turned into a very lovely daily connection with my past.
You've made me want to think about how I want to experience and engage with documenting my life next year. I really love looking through photo albums, so maybe getting into those or photo books will be my 2025 exploration.
Thank you for this post, it was incredibly thoughtful and meaningful to me 💕
I love to hear this Caitlin, and I am so sorry to hear about your relationship and I am sure all the grief surrounding this. I am beginning to think that digital ways of viewing photos creates a subliminal distance between us and the memory, where when they are printed there is nothing between it. I think this can do so much for self-grounding, presence, etc all these things.