Framing Childhood

As I sat at my desk surrounded by captivating photos of my children and grandchildren, this question in New York Times Magazine (February 28, 2010) jumped out at me:  "Has the curating of digital photos come to define modern parenting?"  Here is was the question-asker, Virginia Heffernan, answered, in purposefully provocative terms...

"American children in 2010 have a bright, clear reason for being.  They exist to furnish subjects for digital photographs that can be corrected, cropped, captioned, organized, categorized, albumized, broadcast, turned into screen savers, and brandished on online social networks....  The marching orders come immediately with the newborn photo, which must be e-mailed to friends before a baby has left the maternity ward...

"Thus a parent is minted.  Good thing the drill starts early, as the signature act of Internet-era parenting repeats itself, again and again, in tighter and tighter cycles, throughout a childhood.  It determines the rhythms of beach vacations and snow days.  Eventually the business of family-image production and dissemination incorporates increasingly sophisticated and expensive cameras... software... and organization systems.  Before long the family has become a multimedia publisher, and consumer of digital tools, gadgetry and broadband."

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