I’ve stolen this title from a podcast that I listen to, where the talk was about being digitally quiet as well as physically quiet.
This came from the fact that, (for reasons that are unimportant) I put Facebook back onto my mobile phone as a temporary measure. I’d deleted the app over 12 months ago, but every now and again wished it had been there – and yesterday I put it back on for one day – and I wish in some ways I hadn’t.
We went to the Festival of the Air in Cleethorpes and I’d had this idea that I could post to FB a video of the kite flying – which was incredible by the way…..
What I found was that I got to looking at other things rather than just posting the video, and a couple of photos. It became a huge distraction, as I became more bothered about the upload, than I was about what was going on around me. In the end I uploaded a photo or two – and the video, and then deleted the app again – it was just too much for me to deal with, AND absorb what was going on around me.
Once again, I noticed the number of people (this time including me for a while) who were watching the parade, the kites and all the other attractions through the small screen of their phones – almost like it was a sin to watch the real thing with their own eyes.
I don’t think I take enough time really to stop and look. There’s too much digital noise going on, and sometimes I feel I’m being dragged into directions I don’t want to go.
I’m an advocate of playing around though – I think that it’s essential to take time off from the serious bit of photography. So this weekend – apart from the Facebook distraction – I decided to play with the images – I took them just because it was interesting to me, and not because they were truly ‘artistic’ in any way.
I call it photographic doodling. It’s a great way of limbering up the artistic juices (of which I’ve been sadly lacking for weeks and weeks) – It’s the process of playing around, and not the result. It’s been good to just mess about, and see what comes out.
Facebook has been removed from my phone, and I hope will never, ever, get put back on again, I need the peace and quiet after all….
Photographic Musings......... Or 
Interesting viewpoint! – I hung-up my Facebook and Twitter accounts a while back and about a month ago decided to delete them both [not that I believe they will be deleted, just invisible to most! ~ ever the cynic 🙂 ] Very occasionally I think it would be nice to let a few people in the public eye who seem to use / respond to the use of this media, know my thoughts, not that they’d care! Other than that I don’t get the urge to let the world know what I’m having for breakfast. Maybe “Alexa” does just that now? 🙂
A couple of nice pics, as usual, Diane. Had it not been a busy weekend, it would have been nice to have attended the event. I feel a visit to the frozen North [of the county] is overdue 🙂
Stay happy, stay well.
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Good to hear from you Robert – I wondered how you were getting on. I don’t believe that Facebook is an area in which I’d air my personal thoughts – other than those on photography. I do see folks letting the world and his dog know that they are on holiday in the frozen artic or wherever…. not a brilliant idea I don’t think. Still, it’s nice to speak to you again.. thanks for the post.
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Interesting Di, as always. I think we spend far too much time being ‘human doings’ rather than ‘human beings’! We need to spend more time in the moment just watching and observing and less time busily doing.
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Hi Mike – nice to hear from you. Hope you got to the festival at Cleethorpes. Hope to see you next week at LIM – I’m determined to watch more and social media less…. LOL
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