A few months ago, my girlfriend and I went on a day trip to Lake Michigan. It was our first day long trip together, and we were both extremely excited to share the day with just the two of us. I was also excited to document it all through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. One thing we did was walk up and down the shoreline of the beach and just enjoy the beautiful weather and the company of one another. It was great, we loved it, and at one point we just stopped and let the water wash over our feet and we just took in the moment. I then thought, “Instagram moment!”As I was taking a video of the sky, my girlfriend’s beautiful face, and the waves hitting our feet, she went along with it, but then she said something very interesting… “Ok, now let’s enjoy this.” She wanted me off my phone, rightfully so, but she also made me think.
In such a connected world where people can share information with whoever they want almost instantly, is that now butting in and interfering with enjoying those special “shoreline” moments as they happen? As much as one can say, “yes, of course!” I’d like to say, “no, not at all!” Our ability to share moments with others is just an add-on to now instantly tracking shoreline moments for ourselves. We no longer have to wait till later on to plug in our camera to our computer to wait and upload the files. We can share our special moments with our family and friends right on the spot, or  we can send them to something like ‘the cloud’ if we just want the pictures for ourselves.
The last wedding I went to the couple had everyone use a hashtag(#) to document the wedding all day on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, etc. This was not only a funny idea, but the implications it had were amazing! This newly married couple can now look back and view their wedding from start to finish from hundreds of different angles. They can relive their special day through the eyes of all their guests. Not only did this real-time feed of shoreline moments help document the person taking the photo’s lives, but it also helped in documenting another’s.
The act of documenting a moment such as a wedding, or waves over a couples feet is just something we can, or can not choose to do. In no way will it ever be more important than sharing the moment with the ones you love.
p.s. My girlfriend is amazing. I love you!