DIGITAL IMAGES: BLESSING OR CURSE

The holidays have traditionally been a time to capture family images to share now and in years to come when they become cherished mementos. But, will these keepsakes vanish in the digital age?

The immediacy and low cost of digital imagery has redefined how we capture and store family photos and home movies. No longer are we encumbered by expensive rolls of film, and the time and money for processing. A Super8 movie cartridge that captured three minutes of material has been replaced by smartphones and digital cameras that can record countless high-resolution images at virtually no cost.

While we all point and shoot incessantly, our emphasis is on the convenience of capturing media and transmitting it, not the ease of viewing it in the distant future. We are capturing virtually everything regardless of merit and with little, if any, forethought. In the age of film rolls, every shot had to be carefully considered because there was a limit to how much film you could afford to shoot. As a consequence, just about every image was meaningful and we are not overwhelmed by copious amounts of material. The enormous stockpile of media we are accumulating in the digital age, coupled with the increasing pace of technological change and the lack of organization in archiving these images will pose serious challenges in the future.

Home movies taken during the childhood of someone born in the late-1980's might include VHS, SuperVHS, 8mm video, Hi8, MiniDV, DVCam, DVD's, and an huge myriad of digital file formats and codecs often unique to a certain manufacturer's software. And the tapeless, digital media probably resides on an assortment of computers, disks, and drives.

Conversely, a child born in the early 1950's would likely have just 8mm and Super8 movies to worry about. If a movie projector was retained, nothing else would be required and no format issues would apply.

Imagine the impediments a middle-age adult will face 20 or more years from now when they want to revisit childhood images. The volume of media captured while they were growing up will likely be staggering. There simply won't be enough time to watch it all. And being selective won't be an option to many in the absence of proper labeling. Hundreds maybe thousands of digital files will be hidden in the dark recesses of various computers and other storage devices if they happened to survive. And many older file formats may be unplayable.

Baby boomers today have tangible, manageable collections of snapshots and movies to revisit their childhood and share with their own children. Sure, it often does not have the visual quality of today's imagery, but a lot has to be said for its ease of retrieval. Of course, this is subject to proper preservation and cataloging as well. But, safeguarding and organizing photo albums and a shoebox full of home movies is a lot easier than organizing and saving hundreds, maybe thousands, of media files residing on a multitude of storage devices.

Many camera enthusiasts talk about consolidating their material on a common drive as storage devices get smaller and cheaper while their capacity grows. But, this is easier said then done. It requires time and self-discipline to follow through and the process is unending as more and more media accumulates.

Another potential problem is that storage devices may fail to function if they are left idle for long periods of time. This means powering up each drive periodically which can be a daunting task as more drives are acquired. These are not issues we needed to worry about a generation ago. A shoebox full of photographs would always deliver.

The digital age has a lot of merit, but individuals have to exercise some degree of self-discipline and organization in order to preserve the imagery that will enrich their lives, their children's lives and future generations to come.

NEWTOWN RESIDENT BLAMES MEDIA FOR SCHOOL TRAGEDY

Everyone deals with shock and grief in different ways in the aftermath of events like the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings.  Some go to church, others gather near the site of the horrific event, I write.  I write in the hope that I can play a small role in preventing other communities from suffering the horror and anguish that has befallen mine.

The proliferation of guns is the obvious place to look for answers, but there have been various periods in American history when guns were more commonplace than today, yet gunslingers, frontiersmen, even gangsters didn’t bust into school houses and randomly kill our precious children.  This is as much a product of our popular culture, as it is the number of guns in our society; and mass media, principally television and video games, plays a significant role.

Media likely contributes to the means, the motive, and the state of mind necessary to carry out such heinous crimes.

It would be safe to say that a significant number of young people have killed with impunity and without remorse in the stark reality of sophisticated video games; and that the majority of Americans consume prodigious amounts of TV and motion pictures that depict killing as commonplace, dispassionate, and a natural outcome of fear, pain and anger.  Why then do we find it unimaginable that mentally unstable, impressionable Americans can indiscriminately kill masses of people in public places? 

In many respects, life has been devalued by TV and video games.  Killing is all too often justified and without remorse.  The viewer is emotionally detached from the associated pain and suffering.  This is the type of media Americans consume everyday and applaud as good entertainment, and our kids grow up watching it.

Gone are the days of ubiquitous, socially redeemable programming like Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best that culminated with a valuable life-lesson at the end of every episode.  Today, we are frequently left with inane, morally corrupting messages.  Disrespectful, confrontational, or violent behavior has infected nearly every type of television programming from talk shows and sports commentaries to sitcoms, reality shows and dramas.

Media, particularly TV news, also helps provide the means for committing these murders by creating an atmosphere of irrational fear which in turn drives people to acquire weapons and fervently defend their right to do so.  The old media adage “if it bleeds it leads” the daily news is as current today as it ever was, maybe more so.  Crime stories dominate the nightly news and give viewers the false impression there is a clear and present danger to their life and property. 

Law enforcement officials reported that the alleged 20 year old shooter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School appeared to have used three semi-automatic weapons owned by his mother, a teacher at the school.  A troubling question is why a single, middle-aged mother, would have such an arsenal better suited for Afghanistan then one of the safest communities in Connecticut.  Irrational fear is likely the answer. 

Weapons in the home are rarely a deterrent and they have been known to be used against their owners in the course of an unarmed crime.  There are far more incidents of these guns playing a role in teen suicides, accidental deaths, and tragedies like Newtown, than in thwarting crime.  

As expected, the topic of gun control is dominating the conversation in the aftermath of Newtown and for good reason.  If virtually anyone can purchase a weapon, particularly assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns, we are going to see more random mass killings.  In fact, the rate of mass shootings in America has steadily increased in the last 30 years along with the growing number of handguns according to a study conducted by Mother Jones, and the majority of mass shooter weapons were legally obtained.  Better school security, police response times, and the like cannot fully protect our children because they are vulnerable in countless other places.

The deranged perpetrators of these monstrous crimes want to display their mental anguish and wrath to the world, and media provides the worldwide forum, in other words, the motive.  The incentive is clear to these killers, the greater the number of people they kill, the greater the breadth and duration of the news coverage.  This is a fact not to be lost on future mass killers waiting in the shadows.

Gun control legislation is important, but changing the role of media and how we consume it are equally so.  If no meaningful social change comes as a result of this unthinkable horror in Newtown, then we allow these innocent victims to die in vain.