How Technology Is Transforming Weddings and Marriage
Once upon a time, weddings were events that were somewhat private affairs. Technology wasn’t as pervasive as it is now, so before you could see footage of someone’s big day, you had to plan a visit where you could look through the many images in the couple’s wedding album. If you take it back a couple more decades, you would probably have had to gather in front of the film projector to relive those moments, if you were lucky.
Nowadays, things have changed dramatically, as within a matter of seconds you’re able to see video clips, images, and live footage of a wedding no matter where you are in the world. Aside from feeding into this generation’s need for instant gratification, this level of accessibility means that weddings have become a somewhat public affair. Technology has also changed the way weddings are planned as so many aspects of your big day can be arranged digitally.
On that note, if you’ll be getting married soon, you may be interested in knowing how this technological era is influencing the way your average wedding is planned now.
Image Source: Unsplash
Technology and Modern Relationships
Before jumping straight into weddings, it may be worth touching on how technology is influencing modern-day relationships and marriages. The reality is that social media isn’t only influencing weddings, but it is also influencing dating and how people meet. You may have noticed when scrolling through eye-watering love stories online, that many couples tying the knot met on a social network. A survey by the Knot even found that 19% of brides said they met their partners online.
On the downside, it has been argued that social media platforms like Facebook are causing more divorces, with a law firm indicating that 30% of divorces may have been started by the involvement of Facebook. Some reasons for this could be the oversharing of information, liking, sharing, and engaging on Facebook messenger and how this could trigger feelings of jealousy or conflict. Nonetheless, social media can be used to meet people, share useful information and connect with people in positive ways.
Digital Wedding Planning
When it’s time to plan a wedding, the first instinct for most people is probably to go online to look for whatever they need. This means mobile devices are not only being used at weddings, but they’re also being used to plan them. The era when you had to do everything from venue hunting to viewing your invitation design face-to-face has passed since the internet has taken over. This has been a blessing to many as wedding planning can be done in front of a desktop over a lunch break.
Wedding planning is also a lot different as you have apps that help you organize every step of the process. Examples of wedding planning websites are WeddingWire, which is a venue and vendor database with more than 200,000 local listings. There is also WeddingHappy, which is a free app that acts as a personal assistant. As with everything, there are limitations to planning a wedding digitally, as customizations may require human interaction. For example, if you go online and want to buy a cake for your big day, you may have to contact the vendor if you want a mix of flavors or designs that aren’t on the set price menu.
Another way that tech can be used in the wedding planning stage is to create a wedding website. It’s both a cost-effective and creative way to pass along information to guests. A website could include information like the location, dress code for the day, and a wedding gift registry. There are even those who create a wedding hashtag to ‘brand’ their wedding, so to speak, for social media purposes. If you don’t want uninvited guests showing up on your big day and gatecrashing your wedding, don’t forget to make your website private.
Social Sharing
The emergence of platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram have made social sharing so much more attractive. Seeing as one in three people in the world uses social media platforms, there is more of an incentive to share snippets of special life events with friends, family, and strangers.
Social sharing has also become attractive when it comes to weddings because you have social media features such as being able to create a wedding hashtag on Instagram for everyone to use so live feeds, pictures, and videos from the day are more accessible. Likewise, you can create a customized filter on SnapChat which gives your social content a personal touch and allows you to create an archive of memories.
Even so, small and intimate weddings without phones flashing at every given opportunity are still a wedding trend that some desire. Although social sharing isn’t likely to go out of style soon, you can always ask your guests to avoid posting content — even put their phones away altogether — and hopefully, they’ll comply.
Increased Smartphone Usage
If you’ve been to a wedding recently, you probably have a few thousand selfies in addition to pictures of everything from the dances to the food you ate. Taking pictures with your smartphone at weddings has become a custom. Sometimes it means that guests upload pictures of the event before the bride and groom even get to. Although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, have you thought about what the implication would be for professional photographers?
This is especially something to consider with how sophisticated smartphones are becoming and the rise in iPhone photography. Mobile technology has made it possible to take portraits with depth effect and control the light through exposure which means images come out far more professionally.
With photo editing apps available, perhaps one day professional photographers will become more obsolete. For them to stay in business, they may need to stay up-to-date with technology by branching into things like drone photography as that isn’t something your average phone can do.
Your wedding day will likely be one of the many milestones in your life, so you want it to be laced with good memories. Technology has not only made weddings more accessible, but they have also, in some ways, made them unforgettable.
About the Author
Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.
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