Lost generation?

 I recently attended a wedding and one of my far flung cousins was attending (Well quite a few)

There was grumbling when the camera was pointed at him, as I would grumble too.

The ravages of time has brought a few grey hairs, we all like to remember ourselves as we were.
I quietly walked over to him and asked him  "Do you appreciate photo's of your dad?"
A wry smile and a quick 'Hell yeah" was his response, he got a pat on the back and I walked away.
I had made my point.

Which brings me to my next concern which has been bugging me lately.
I have four teenage children.  They have seen their fair share of death.  

It doesnt seem to be the same to when I was young.  

Suicide, car accidents, they all seem to lose friends far more often than what I experienced 20 years ago.  

It is sad.

Not quite on the same scale of sadness, but I find sad all the same.  The memorial sheet.

All the photo's available to remember the poor soul are crap.  

The lasting reminder of the person, the image that will be shown with the words,

"This is your uncle, but he died", are grainy, blocky cell phone images.  

Those amazing pieces of technology that we all carry are great for social media, smart phone images look great on smart phones.  

Technology is getting better, but the marketing hype of the big cell phone company's have shaped this generations view of normal.  I hate to say this, but your normal sux when it comes to printing.

Is it going to be a lost generation?  The Pharoahs have their carving in stone,  the renaissance  have their paintings, the industrial age have their printed photo's.  The digital age has their, well, digital images. 

Technology will change, phones and memory cards will be lost, or upgraded.

Your 'amazing photo' on your phone will look crap on tomorrows upgraded high resoloution next new screen, will you bother to keep it?  

What will you show your grand children?
What will they show their grandchildren?