Many of us have wondered what our parents were like when they were our age. As detailed as my family's crazy stories are, I will never truly understand what it was like for them back then. However, the next generation will have a pretty good understanding of what their parents were like. With the combination of social media and technology, my children will be able to see, probably, a little too much of my youth.
The children of the millennials will have an open electronic time capsule of every move their parents documented. It is really cool, but at the same time, slightly terrifying. Our generation tends to over share, and I wonder how all of that information will affect the generations after us. I imagine it will be nice to have a window into the lives of their ancestors, but I also enjoy the sense of mystery that comes with not knowing exactly how my grandparents lived day to day. My grandchildren will be able to know that today, I really craved donuts, according to Twitter. That does not really leave much to the imagination. It could allow us to become closer as a result of all of this improved story telling. Or, it could lower the interest of story telling later on.
The improved technology will make a great difference, as well. Most of our stories for our children and grandchildren will be backed up with beautiful pictures and HD video. With smartphones, selfie-sticks, and GoPros, few things go uncaptured. It will be interesting to see whether or not this next generation pays attention to all of this nostalgia, or if the technology will become too outdated. My father took an excessive amount of home videos, but most of them are on tape or CDs that are not compatible with my laptop. If I could, I would watch them all the time. However, the time and effort it would take to relay hundreds of video tapes onto a flash drive is currently too much.
Maybe the use of social media and improved technology won't make much of a difference. I think it will drastically change storytelling in the future. Let's make sure we have good stories to tell.