Photographs & Memory

In my last blog post I discussed how the advent of digital photography affected the world. It’s safe to say that the advent of digital photography caused the prevalence of images to grow exponentially. Cameras are now everywhere – in bags, in back pockets, and in phones; most people carry some type of device capable of taking pictures with them at all times. People are constantly exposed to what seems like an endless stream of photographs on a regular basis. On top of that, more and more frequently photographs tend to be equated with truth; they serve as evidence that an event has occurred. This trend towards photographs being the definitive proof that an event occurred is becoming so prevalent that experiencing an event is increasingly being sacrificed in order to record the event. As the popular internet adage goes, “Pics or it didn’t happen” (“Pics,” n.d.).


Susan Sontag claims that beyond photographs just being “a way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it – by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir” (1987, p. 9). Archivist Caroline Brown illustrates this in the context of a concert: “At a pop concert, a large part of the audience is likely to be preoccupied with filming or photographing the event rather than experiencing it directly themselves. This film will stand as a memory of an event that was not fully experienced first-hand” (2013, pp. 88-89). We have all seen this in action, either in person or in video footage of events. Whether at a concert or a speech or any other type of event, ever present is a sea of raised arms clutching camera phones, iPads, and cameras. These people are watching an event happen on a screen instead of watching it happen in front of their own eyes. They are concerned about making sure the images come out well instead of paying attention to the event. This begs the question, why has creating an image or record of the event become so crucial that it outweighs the importance of actually experiencing the event?


Sontag offers one explanation; that the desire to photograph the things we experience in order to show them off as “trophies.” She observes that “photographs will offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had” (1987, p. 9). And why else would we need this evidence if not to prove these things to our friends and families? This has only becomes more relevant with the rise in popularity of social media. Social media affords us the unique ability to selectively exhibit both text and images to our audience of friends and relatives, painting an idealized picture of ourselves. It allows us to only reveal the parts of our lives that are consistent with the way we wish others to perceive us. For most this means completely focusing on positive and exciting events and experiences.


However, this type of self curating can have negative effects on users of social media. Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge’s 2012 study found that "Constantly reading others’ reported positive life events, as well as frequently seeing others’ pictures of happy moments, could give Facebook users an impression that others are happy and have good lives. [This is] in contrast to their own life events, which might not always be happy and positive" (p. 118). When the only interaction one has with a large portion of their social network is online, you’re only seeing the good things. By removing these events from the context of somebody’s real life, which consists of up and downs and mundane moments, a false and distorted picture of their lives is painted.


This kind of falsification of others lives is akin to the way that photographs can trigger false memories. Chou and Edge found that part of the reason for people having this distorted perception is because it is the most easily accessible memory. “Frequent Facebook users tend to perceive that others are happier. In other words, they are more likely to be affected by the easily recalled content” (2012, p. 119). Similarly, Marryanne Garry and Matthew Gerrie’s 2005 study found that false memories can be more easily triggered using photographs. Participants were given a textual description of a false event, and half of the participants were also shown a class photograph of themselves from around the time that the false incident supposedly happened. They found that while “slightly fewer than half of the description-only subjects developed mental images of the [false] story or full memories, over 70% of the photo subjects did” (2005, p. 323). That the photographs they were shown had nothing to do with the event described shows how tied to memory photographs really are.


Perhaps because of the fallibility of memory, or perhaps simply because of the internet and other digital tools providing instant access to images and information, there is an increased reliance on information retrieval over memory. One example of this decrease is in memorization of phone numbers. Why bother when you can simply store it in your phone for easy retrieval later? Brandon Keim reports that a Columbia University study in 2011 “ found lower rates of recall on newly-learned facts when students thought those facts were saved on a computer for later recovery. If you think a fact is conveniently available online, then, you may be less apt to learn it” (2011, para. 2-3). This may not be all bad, at least for archivists. Society’s trend toward retrieval versus remembrance could suggest a trend of increased reliance on archives looking forward. Pierre Nora (as cited by Brown) sums it up perfectly:

‘No epoch has deliberately produced so many archives as ours, due alike to technical advances in reproduction and conservation and to our superstitious respect for these traces. As traditional memory fades, we feel obliged religiously to accumulate the testimonies, documents, images and visible signs of what was’ (Nora 1984, translated by Lowenthal 2006, p. 57) (2013, pp. 88-89)


References

Brown, C. (2013). Memory, identity and the archival paradigm: Introduction to the special issue. Archival Science, 13(2/3), 85-93.

Chou, H., & Edge, N. (2012). 'They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am': The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others' Lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 15(2), 117-121.

Garry, M., & Gerrie, M. P. (2005). When Photographs Create False Memories. Current Directions In Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 14(6), 321-325.

Keim B. (2011) Search engines change how memory works. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/search-engine-memory.

Pics or it didn't happen. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2014 from the Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pics+or+it+didn%27t+happen

Sontag, S. (1978). On photography. New York, NY: Delta.