Experience is fleeting, and life along with it. Throughout recorded history, humans have sought to still its passage with drawings, diaries, and tales of glory. Today we take photographs, thousands of them, the great majority of which will never be viewed. But is the recording and recounting of our lives of any help in dealing with the unknown and momentary character of life? Sartre argued that; 'you have to choose: to live or to recount' but can never do both. Meanwhile, multiple Harvard studies have claimed to show living in the present is beneficial for mental health. And The British Psychological Society showed that taking photos impedes our memory of objects, distancing us from direct experience.
In an Instagram world, is the recording and recounting of our lives, undermining experience and leaving us with thin, empty lives? Should we embrace life's fleeting nature and renounce our devotion to documentation? Or is the desire to hold still and capture the passing of time a sign of our self-awareness and a profoundly important part of what it is to be human?