Physical media is still very important.
In 2021, I deactivated all of my social media. I had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and I found myself constantly triggered all of the time. I had been off of it for about two years, and when I finally returned, I saw so many updates from my friends, mutual friends, acquaintances, family, etc. that I had NO clue about— they were engaged, in new relationships, married, moved to new cities, graduated, having babies, and were in so many new eras that I had no clue about. They had my number, so they could have told me, and it really sucked that I didn’t get to see those exciting things in their life.
That stuck with me, and I started thinking about my family that was not on social media, namely my grandmother, who’s 91 years old, and how she may not see what is happening in the lives of her kids and grandchildren who do not live near her.
I call her often, and she used to always ask about my boyfriend and my cat and she wanted to see photos. I would send them to my aunt, and I would ask for her to show her, and sometimes she’s forget. That made me so sad that my grandma can be so disconnected from us.
So, I decided to get a camera and start taking as many photos as I could and mail them to her. I show her everything— my plants, maybe a meal I made, my cat, me while being very sleep deprived, etc.
I think she deserves to see what my life looks like, and I have fun showing her! This brings me to the point that physical media is important to have records of what life looks like for you.
Physical media is important to continue to expand the access that others have to you. I think this is relevant especially because we get so used to the prevalence of digital media and social media and we think it is connecting ourselves to the world, and to an extent it really is! But it does isolate those who aren’t on social media whether they prefer not to be on it, whether they do not have social media access due to censorship, whether they do not have social media access because they cannot afford the tools to have it, whether they do not have social media access because they cannot have access to media period (i.e. military duties), whether they do not have access to social media because it is beyond their time.
If we really think about it, we really push older people from access to us and the world in favor of something more technologically advanced, and I think that is unfair too. Accessibility means everyone can and should access it (to me at least).
Anyway, I hope this serves as a reminder or at least inspiration to continue to add physical media to how you share your lives— whether that is through journaling, letters, or even printed imagery that you can mail out.
In the meantime, I’m going to mail these to my grandmother so she can see my pretty plants, my pretty cat, and my pretty life.
