| Something that occurred to me the other day regarding my own "memories" of times before I was born: From 1965–Present, the world is in color. The tone shifts a bit, but it's all in color. 1900–1964: Black and white. The world was actually black and white. Sometimes people moved around at a weird frame-rate :) 1800–1899: Color, but very much sepia toned. The whole world was slightly dirty and brownish, but the sky was still blue. Big Bang–1799: Color, no sepia or nothing. Of course this is all due to photography and movies. The general lack of both of those before the 20th Century (yeah, I know photography goes back further, but just barely. It wasn't widespread) means whatever images I get from that time period come from paintings and illustrations and written accounts. The sepia I perceive from the 1800s is basically thinking of them in terms of the railroads, westward expansion, etc. So the result is that when I think about the Roman Empire—when was the last time you thought of that?—I see a richly-colored world like the one we have today. But when I think about WWII, it's all black and white. And the Civil War occurred in a vast, dusty, brownish field. |
What I really wonder is whether the photos and videos we're taking in the present will have some kind of subjective effect on how people remember our current time. It feels like we're finally at a point where most media has the fidelity to capture an objective image of the world, but that could just be that since we have the reference point of living through these times our minds can fill in the blanks.
Maybe the original comment I replied to's grandkid will want to borrow their old iPhone 12 to take retro pictures with someday.