What I Wish I’d Known: My Memory Would Fail Me
By Karen Sprinkle
If I had known how little I would remember later, I would have recorded the dates and details on photographs. Two of my children looked a whole lot alike when they were infants. Enough said.
One thing that I regret is not consistently recording our family history. I did enough of it to know that I should have done more. I captured a few months here and there by recording daily happenings on index cards. I cherish those cards and I look back at them from time to time. The other months and years are lost to me because I don’t remember the details. If I could go back I would write things down in a journal.
Today we have tools such as Facebook and Twitter that naturally lend themselves to recording events and happenings. I caution though – we don’t own what we post. Will you be able to look back at your posts in twenty years? Is there a way to capture that data into a format that you own?
Heather’s Two Cents:
Karen, I think we have all learned to lean on social media and it has (for me, at least) taken the place of other forms of recording things. I used to print photos and put them in albums, but that was time consuming. I really like my friend Susan’s approach to managing digital memories. UPDATE: Last night after I wrote this I couldn’t sleep, so I ended up making a photo book in iPhoto. Stoked I used that time productively. Thanks for the inspiration, Karen!
Another way to record things is through a blog. You can set them up to be private and control access to who sees it. You can also turn a blog into a book. I am also a big fan of letters.
I always think the internet is forever. But that doesn’t mean Facebook is. Karen raises a good point: What if 20 years from now Facebook is gone along with your photos, updates, milestones, etc…
Do you rely on social media to record things? Do you blog, journal or have any other ideas for ways to record memories?
Karen Sprinkle is the mother of three grown children and a professional organizer based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her company is called Organize it Data, Time and Space. If you need help organizing and are interested in speaking with Karen you can find her on her web site, Facebook and Twitter.
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