Are you guilty of filling up your phone with photos or screenshots of information you hope to call on later — only to never look at it again?
We certainly intend to go back to try that recipe, or try to find that product at the store. Instead, the image is banished to the digital void.
You’re not alone. Many of us are taking and hoarding more photos than we would ever reasonably look back on.
And instead of helping us jog our memory, the act of taking the photos actually does the opposite: It makes us more likely to forget, Binghamton University researchers found.
They call it “photo-taking impairment effect” and it happens when the person who took the picture remembers less than a person who simply views it and moves on.
Authors from the study, titled “Digital amnesia: The aftermath of a screenshot,” break down why this might be happening, and better ways for us to remember.
What is the photo-taking impairment effect?
About 90% of Americans use a smartphone, and a major function they’re used for is to take pictures. Previous research shows that we take about 20 photos a day and keep about 2,000 photos on our devices.
There can be some benefits of taking a photo — but only if the image is revisited after. Previous research showed that those struggling with memory loss who went through photos of their day were better able to recall details later.
The problem is when we take a snap and never look at it again. “Unless you are actively reviewing those images as cues … it is unlikely to benefit you,” said author Sophia Fabrizio.
In this study, students were shown images of art, from photographs to paintings and sketches, and were instructed to screenshot some of them. Later, they were asked to choose from 3 choices which piece of art they saw originally.
And it was difficult — researchers purposefully picked images that were very close to the original art. Participants needed more than a “gist” of what the image was to get it right.
Researchers found participants didn’t remember the screenshotted images as well as the ones they simply viewed.
Even stranger, taking a screenshot made people less likely to remember that they had screenshotted the image in the first place. They were more likely to remember which ones they didn’t screenshot.
Why is this happening?
There are a few theories, and the authors noted they should be thought of as all contributing to the phenomenon, rather than one being an explanation over the other.
The first is divided attention. This is the idea that the act of taking a photo or screenshot takes away attention and cognitive resources that would normally go to making a memory.
Then there’s cognitive offloading — the theory that we don’t try as hard to remember for ourselves when we know it’s stored somewhere else. Think about how many phone numbers you know by heart — it’s not as essential anymore now that they’re stored in your phone.
Interestingly though, even when participants knew their images would be instantly deleted (i.e. not stored externally) — they still couldn’t remember screenshotted images as well.
The third theory is attentional disengagement, where taking the photo takes us out of the moment and makes us unconsciously distanced from the experience. This could help explain why people couldn’t remember which pieces of art they’d screenshotted.
Next time, instead of screenshotting, researchers recommend writing it down. While not perfect (cognitive offloading can still happen), it forces the brain to process the information you want to remember — the step that’s skipped when you never look at a screenshot again.
