A grainy video of a grandparent waving at a camera during a lockdown. Why These Files Matter
A quick clip of a home-cooked meal sent to a partner. VID 20210324 WA0078 mp4
There is something uniquely human about these messy digital archives. When we click "play" on a file like this, we are often met with: A grainy video of a grandparent waving at
In an era of highly curated Instagram feeds and polished TikToks, these "VID" files represent our . They aren't staged; they are the raw, unedited snippets of our daily existence that we felt were important enough to hit "send." When we click "play" on a file like
Since this is a generic filename for a personal media file, the actual content could be anything—from a family birthday to a viral meme. Because I cannot see the specific video, I have drafted a blog post that explores the like this one.