I have just spent a couple of hours going through relative's MySpace pages and looking for photos to add to the family genealogy. I had a hard time picking out photos that I wanted to save for posterity. Here are a few things I noticed were a problem for saving pictures for posterity, because you want to think about the person's image forever. These photos, stories, and life events are all someone 100 years from now will have of us or our loved ones.
These are some problems I found with photos which I did not save:
1. Drunk pics, pics of people drinking, party pics, people with bongs, alchol, etc. Do you really want your decendants to think you were a lush? Even if you are a lush?
2. Naked pics. Don't think I need to go into that one.
3. Pics of people acting or doing something stupid or illegal. Again, do you want to go down in family history as an idiot?
4. Embarassing or humilitating pics.
I had a really hard time and had to dig through tons of photos because I could barely find any with none of the above in them. One photo of someone with their tongue sticking out is funny. An entire photo album of people with their tongues sticking out looks like you were the Beverly Hillbillies.
You would be amazed at some of the embarassing, drunken, stupid pics I have found of family online. That's the public image these people are putting forward. So when taking photos, please remember to take some nice ones without your bong, not showing a thong (especially if you are a man!
) and without your tougne hanging out. Trust me, future genealogists will be pleased to find nice photos of your family fully clothed, sober, tongues in mouth and facing the camera.
I'm not saying every photo has to be a formal portrait (although those are good), just that after a couple of hours looking at a family member's drunk pics makes me wonder if that person has a life outside the bottle. I can ask the person, but 150 years from now, this family member's my drunken life photo album is going to speak volumes more about them than anything I could write.
These are some problems I found with photos which I did not save:
1. Drunk pics, pics of people drinking, party pics, people with bongs, alchol, etc. Do you really want your decendants to think you were a lush? Even if you are a lush?
2. Naked pics. Don't think I need to go into that one.
3. Pics of people acting or doing something stupid or illegal. Again, do you want to go down in family history as an idiot?
4. Embarassing or humilitating pics.
I had a really hard time and had to dig through tons of photos because I could barely find any with none of the above in them. One photo of someone with their tongue sticking out is funny. An entire photo album of people with their tongues sticking out looks like you were the Beverly Hillbillies.
You would be amazed at some of the embarassing, drunken, stupid pics I have found of family online. That's the public image these people are putting forward. So when taking photos, please remember to take some nice ones without your bong, not showing a thong (especially if you are a man!
) and without your tougne hanging out. Trust me, future genealogists will be pleased to find nice photos of your family fully clothed, sober, tongues in mouth and facing the camera.I'm not saying every photo has to be a formal portrait (although those are good), just that after a couple of hours looking at a family member's drunk pics makes me wonder if that person has a life outside the bottle. I can ask the person, but 150 years from now, this family member's my drunken life photo album is going to speak volumes more about them than anything I could write.
