Does documenting an experience (photographing it) diminish having it?

Since 2016 John has warned that documenting experiences can come to matter more than having them, and that seeing through a camera risks missing what it doesn't see. In 2017 he added that photographs are also a way of conversing with yourself and others, and in 2026 he took up the question in Hollywood, Ending.

Axis: documenting diminishes the experience ... documenting preserves or enriches it

Positions by date: 6 records in 5 videos. The position was refined (2017), never reversed, in these records.

John

date	how	position	video
2016-10-04	first on record	John argues that documenting experiences can matter more to us than having them, that we may choose things for the picture, and that looking is not the same as looking through a lens.	Drowzees and Masterpieces: Thoughts from London 00:02:27
2017-05-30	restate	John warns that if life feels unreal until photographed, we risk undervaluing important but unphotogenic parts of life, like grief.	What Should We Keep? 00:01:50
2017-05-30	refine	John says he is not an old person who thinks young people's many photos are bad news: photographs are now also a way of conversing with yourself and others.	What Should We Keep? 00:02:00
2017-07-04	restate	Citing Toni Morrison, John says that at some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough: you need not photograph, paint or even remember it.	Civil Twilight 00:02:45
2019-05-28	restate	John says the risk of seeing everything through a camera is missing everything the camera doesn't see.	3 Minutes and 58 Seconds of Darkness 00:03:21
2026-06-02	restate	From health updates to gender reveals we render 3D experiences into 2D posts; John asks what that does for us and to us, questions Hollywood, Ending tries to answer.	The Instagramification of Human Experience 00:05:21