I recently visited the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia – one of the best art
museums in the world. I was expecting to serenely experience its masterpieces, but
my view was blocked by a wall of smart phones taking pictures of the paintings. And
where I could find a bit of empty space, there were people taking selfies to create
lasting memories of their visit. 
   
For many people, taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures is now a crucial part
of going on holiday – documenting every last detail and posting it on social media.
But how does that affect our actual memories of the past – and how we view
ourselves? 
   
We use smart phones and new technologies as memory repositories. This is nothing
new – humans have always used external devices as an aid when acquiring
knowledge and remembering. 
   
Writing certainly serves this function. Historical records are collective external
memories. Testimonies of migrations, settlement or battles help entire nations trace
a lineage, a past and an identity. In the life of an individual, written diaries serve a
similar function. 
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Taking photos of an event rather than being immersed in it has been shown to lead to
poorer recall of the actual event – we get distracted in the process. 
   
Relying on photos to remember has a similar effect. Memory needs to be exercised on
a regular basis in order to function well. 
   
But while photos can in some instances help people to remember, the quality of the
memories may be limited. We may remember what something looked like more
clearly, but this could be at the expense of other types of information. One study
showed that while photos could help people remember what they saw during some
event, they reduced their memory of what was said. 
   
There are some rather profound risks when it comes to personal memory. Our
identity is a product of our life experiences, which can be easily accessed through our
memories of the past. So, does constant photographic documentation of life
experiences alter how we see ourselves? There is no substantial empirical evidence
on this yet, but I would speculate that it does. 
   
Too many images are likely to make us remember the past in a fixed way – blocking
other memories. While it is not uncommon for early childhood memories to be based
on photos rather than the actual events, these are not always true memories. 
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Another issue is the fact that research has uncovered a lack of spontaneity in selfies and
many other photos. They are planned, the poses are not natural and at times the image
of the person is distorted. They also reflect a narcissistic tendency which shapes the face
in unnatural mimics – artificial big smiles, sensual pouts, funny faces or offensive
gestures. 
   
Importantly, selfies and many other photos are also public displays of specific attitudes,
intentions and stances. In other words, they do not really reflect who we are, they reflect
what we want to show to others about ourselves at the moment. If we rely heavily on
photos when remembering our past, we may create a distorted self identity based on the
image we wanted to promote to others. 
   
That said, our natural memory isn't actually perfectly accurate. Research shows that we
often create false memories about the past. We do this in order to maintain the identity
that we want to have over time – and avoid conflicting narratives about who we are. So
if you have always been rather soft and kind – but through some significant life
experience decide you are tough – you may dig up memories of being aggressive in the
past or even completely make them up. 
   
Having multiple daily memory reports on the phone of how we were in the past might
therefore render our memory less malleable and less adaptable to the changes brought
about by life – making our identity more stable and fixed. 
   
But this can create problems if our present identity becomes different from our fixed,
past one. That is an uncomfortable experience and exactly what the “normal”
functioning of memory is aimed to avoid – it is malleable so that we can have a non-
contradictory narrative about ourselves. We want to think of ourselves as having a
certain unchanging “core”. If we feel unable to change how we see ourselves over time,
this could seriously affect our sense of agency and mental health. 
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So our obsession with taking photos may be causing both memory loss and
uncomfortable identity discrepancies