Mental Gymnastics & Technology

I had been planning on rolling out this page for some time- just last week I got its placeholder revved up while I continue to build out the final version. I think I’m really excited about it now, I’ve had this vision for some time and I’m excited for everything that is in store. So let me tell you about the motivation that I suddenly had to put it all into place this past weekend.

I had just found out that my husband had unintentionally overwritten many of our photos on his phone because our dashcam’s SD card had become corrupted, so he decided to use his phone’s SD card in it. All while having thought, it’ll be all good since Google is automatically backing up to Google Drive, the files were erased and overwritten. He told me the next day that the SD card was corrupted and the first thing I asked was, “what about our photos, are they on your phone?”

No such luck, they were on the SD card and most likely overwritten since the dashcam had been used for a few hours of video footage. I was really upset, angry at my husband that he could have done something so impulsive without having double checked to see that the cloud was indeed backing up. He had said he was certain everything was backed up.

Turns out, in 2019 Google Drive and Google Photos had split up, so while Google Drive works as a data backup for your phone, you have to manually sync your photos to Google Photos IN ADDITION to Google Drive. Unfortunately, his was not connected and I don’t even remember connecting mine, but it had at some point. I was devastated. For full transparency, I take 90% of our photos when we’re together and he’s not really a big photo taker at all, so he had very few photos by comparison, but they still spanned a few years, we had some stuff of our cats and our trips and it was just crushing.

This was just two days ago and I’m still crushed, but I know as a good friend once told me, you have to let it go. I know it’s easier said than done, believe me, but I know I will move on from this and if this has ever happened to you, know you will too. I’ve definitely had my data loss days with previous computers in the earlier 2000’s and even a phone that became a dead paperweight in 2016. Thinking back though, how often did I look at his phone to see these photos? Almost never. It’s the idea of the loss I think that kills us. Something taken away without our consent.

What did I do with this sudden overwhelming anxiety and feelings of powerlessness? I started distracting myself by backing up an old website and email that I’m working on phasing out (I started it in 2003!) and setting up the front page of my new site. I got some fresh, new banners on social media that I had been meaning to work on and edited and posted another video. I channeled that energy into something positive as a coping mechanism. I hope you guys enjoy the fruit of my fragile mental state, haha. All while using various data recovery software programs to see if I could recover the files from my husband’s SD card, but no such luck as the data had already been overwritten with new files- making it impossible to recover. So, if this ever happens to you, know that this software can pull up deleted or damaged files, as long as they aren’t overwritten with new data, because then those chances are slim to none.

Now coming out of this experience, I am unsure of how we will do things differently, it's fresh still, but it definitely brings an awareness to slowing things down and savoring things in the moment. I love media, but what were the chances of me looking back on say 10,000 images from the past year and a half? Probably slim to none, right? It comes down to the old ideology that sometimes less really is more. I think we might make an effort to be more present in the moment, enjoying the experience rather than feeling the need to have everything on camera because we’re afraid we’ll forget it. I think this new era of technology has made us entirely dependent on it, but just 20 years ago, we only captured the special moments in our lives, like birthdays, graduations or other milestones. It’s back to basics in a way. Now as a content creator, I’ll definitely be taking my share of photos/videos for work, but when I’m out having a good time, perhaps I might be more selective and even delete any images that don’t really serve me.

Slow down and ensure your backups are always up to date, they aren’t foolproof. Especially when you’re changing out phones or computers.

How about you? Have you had something like this happen, what was the result?