This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SJU chapter.
A new study, conducted by Fairfield University psychology professor, Linda Henkel, suggests we are less likely to remember something after we have taken a picture of it. This is because we take comfort in knowing that specific details and even basic facts about a particular event or situation can be retrieved later with a simple swipe of a finger.
The study was conducted at the Bellarmine Museum of Art at the University of Fairfield. Participants were asked to tour the museum snapping pictures of some pieces and simply observing the others. The next day, memories were tested and it was concluded that participants remembered much more about the objects they observed with their eyes than the ones they captured through a camera lense. Even upon viewing the actual photographs, participants could hardly remember viewing the featured objects or even talking the photograph.
Take your mobile contacts list, for example. Ten digits become two names almost instantly and from that moment forward we forget the actual phone number; it’s stored in your phone, so why waste the brain space? Knowing that we can look up a friends phone number or home address wherever, whenever allows us to depend on technology to connect with one another or get us from point A to point B.
“We’re kind of counting on our technology to keep our memories,” Linda told NBC News. “We collect photos almost as if they’re trophies, or evidence, but that’s not the same thing as trying to capture the experience.”
Linda is right. For many of us, social media accounts double as a bottomless memory box. One mobile album that holds thousands of memories, years of laughter and one of a kind, digitally enhanced images of you and your girlfriends, family, dog, boyfriend…you get the idea. This new type of photo album fits right in your pocket or in the palm of your hand and retrieving it’s contents is effortless. In this we find extreme comfort.
We snap pictures constantly, pause briefly before enjoying a meal, stop in our tracks if the snow has fallen just the right way atop a tree branch. If we didn’t take any pictures at last nights party, did we even go at all? We crop, we filter, we edit, we enhance, but what do we remember?
Henkel suggests, to reverse the process, we should zoom in on the stuff that matters. Photograph the moments that are truly meaningful and just live the rest. The overwhelming volume of photographs that we take today results in less time spent going back and actually looking at those photos. We arrive at monumental stages in our life, or even insignificant ones, snap a picture and move on.
Instead, make a conscious effort in this new year to live in the moment. Take a step back and reconsider your priorities. Are you posting this picture because you’re satisfying the compelling need for “likes” that we all seem to have, or are you missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience because you’re busy hiding behind your Instagram editor? With final exams coming to a close, take some time to look back at every photo you’ve posted in 2013, chose the most meaningful ones, the ones you remember best and create a new album. Transition into 2014, with this same mentality. Only posting the best of the best, and living all the rest.
Be physically in the moment rather than digitally in the representation of the moment.