1497 Snappshots

I was sitting in a restaurant not long ago waiting for a to-go order to be ready. As I did so, I played my favorite game of watching people conduct the ordinary business of their lives.
There was one big table of convivial folks, obviously extended family members together for a reunion of some sort. And they were passing around pictures of their loved ones who weren't present at the table—snapshots of children, dogs, and suchlike. Except they weren't actually passing around pictures. This is the 21st century. They were passing around smartphones.
Yep, instead of passing lightweight pictures back and forth, any one of which could accidentally slip through fingers and end up in a bowl of guacamole, they were passing around expensive electronic devices, ready to be short-circuited in a tureen of chili con queso.
But pass them they did, recipients swiping shared screens with nacho-greased fingers. So sanitary, is this another way to go viral?
It seemed a little sad though. How another bridge from the 20th century has been crossed and forgotten. The snapshot has been replaced with the snap app. And those loving mementos, once stored in dark closets or cleverly decorated scrapbooks, are now just one giant electro-magnetic pulse away from oblivion.
One big sunspot or solar flare and bye-bye 21st century digital electronic memories.
And even sadder, another industry gone to dust. The poor people who for years and years manufactured wallet sleeves. Those clear plastic booklets or accordion-folded pockets of posterity. With loving pictures of the spouses and kids warmly nestled next to hunter's license, draft card, social security I.D. and expired parking validation.
Farewell photosleeve manufacturers. You served us well. Your snapshot-protecting days are over.
Another faded memory of the 20th century.
America, ya gotta love it.