It’s all too tempting (and easy), when we’re busy making memories, to whip out the smartphone and capture these moments for posterity.
Little do we realise, however, that by taking a snap shot, we’re actually potentially affecting our ability to recall the very event that we’re trying to preserve, in future.
The reason for this, apparently, is that photo-taking disrupts memory-forming processes, by effectively outsourcing the job of our brains...to our cameras.
In so doing, less input from the eyes and ears is absorbed, so harming the often precious memory of what it is we’re photographing.
This phenomenon is known as the ‘photo-taking-impairment effect’, and it’s something to keep in mind this bank holiday weekend... when chances are we’ll all be busy topping up our camera rolls with obligatory egg hunts, walks and Sunday roasts.
It sounds far-fetched, but based on the above, Alec Baldwin’s character from friends probably wasn’t far wrong when he went around taking ‘mental pictures’ with a mimed wink and a camera click!
This isn’t to say that photos aren’t important (quite the opposite in fact!). Rather, it is the ‘photos for the sake of photos’ (we’ve probably all got them... in their thousands!!), which when swapped for presence and concentration, might just help free up more than just our PHONE memory!