My iPhone has become an extension of my life. I would give up all electronic devices before I gave up my phone. I may be a little too dependent on it. It’s my camera, my calendar, my work organizer, my TV, my music player and more all wrapped into a little, hand-held, portable contraption.
I backup the data and send pictures to the cloud often now. I rarely delete anything (this is also a problem) because I have a great fear that when I transfer pictures over to the computer or hard drive and delete them from my phone, everything will be lost. Is there an actual phobia for this? I feel like there could be.
My phone contains a photo essay of my life. There are selfies I take of myself, some end up on Instagram, others are just me at various angles deciding if I like my hair that way. I take pictures with the kids and while most of these don’t end up in a social sphere, I cherish them. They usually are of us with wide smiles. There’s no planning or pretentiousness about these photos. It’s just us being us. I have pictures of food in there all the time; as a blogger this is what happens. I have pictures of kid items that usually end up on Instagram. Sometimes there are pictures that I don’t remember taking and I’m pretty sure the kids did. The kids often request that I take pictures of their creations or of them. They live in a picture world.
This little device tells so many of my stories with no words. Each picture a memory. A snapshot of my life at that time. I don’t document everything, there are times you won’t see me pull out the phone at all. But I love that I can snap a quick picture at any given moment just by reaching into my pocket.
When I was looking at my pictures to download some for upcoming blog posts, I couldn’t help but smile. These picturess, hundreds of them that no one but me will see, are my life. The smiles, the bites of food, the toys, the clothing, the mess. It’s mine. It’s me. It’s irreplaceable. They don’t need to be in the public domain to be special, they just need to get off my phone at some point.
