The essay, "Shutterbug Parents and Overexposed Lives" was in the Style section of the New York Times today 2/20/15. They discuss how photographs displace or distort memory, especially the memories of childhood. I don't know if the link is accessible through the "paywall," but if you're interested you can give it a try.
Most of us don't hold accurate memories from childhood. It is how memory works.
Kids pile all Christmas's memories together.
It is not unusual for a friend to have a photograph or memory from a shared event that I don't have any recall of or we both remember the event entirely differently.
Photographs do play a role in how accurate the memory is, but to think they displace real memories, shows a lack of understanding of how loosely knit the child brain is for storing this type of data. Afterall, we really don't need a day by day memory in order to mature into high functioning adults.
We build and rebuild our tool sets till we are competant at doing something, like driving. So it isn't necessary to remember every time we drove the car.
A lot of things displace and distort memories. Photos are just a part of that process.
I use photos to not only record memories but to express feelings - I don't think it matters why we take photos but I think it matters that we do - I love looking at old photos - sometimes they bring back a memory - other times they make me feel something
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Kids pile all Christmas's memories together.
It is not unusual for a friend to have a photograph or memory from a shared event that I don't have any recall of or we both remember the event entirely differently.
Photographs do play a role in how accurate the memory is, but to think they displace real memories, shows a lack of understanding of how loosely knit the child brain is for storing this type of data. Afterall, we really don't need a day by day memory in order to mature into high functioning adults.
We build and rebuild our tool sets till we are competant at doing something, like driving. So it isn't necessary to remember every time we drove the car.
A lot of things displace and distort memories. Photos are just a part of that process.