SAVE IT FOR LATER
How screenshots are messing with your memory.
Some of the seemingly most important details of our daily lives exist in screenshots accumulated and stored for when we’ll one day need them (we swear). But what are we actually doing with them? And what are they doing to our ability to remember what’s in them in the first place?
The most fiercely guarded images on your phone might be holiday snaps and selfies with your nearest and dearest, but if the Screenshots folder were to evaporate into the icloud, it would feel a little like losing an arm – one with a lot of random, but vital, notes scribbled on it. Screenshots have become the preferred method of documenting things we find in the corners of the internet – such as photos you must repost, addresses you must remember, emails you must not lose to the depths of your inbox, things you must buy, restaurants you must try and books you must read. The idea is that you’ll know exactly where to look when you need to book a hotel in a new city (the one with the fab bathtub that in-the-know local posted to her Insta Stories last month) or buy your mum a birthday gift (that book Oprah tweeted about at the end of last year). But how often do you actually call on them?
Studies of our phone habits show that when we file away information to our phones (say, with a screenshot), assuming we’ll have access to it later, we promptly forget about the info, no doubt replacing it simply with where we can find it. Essentially, knowing that information is stored on our device mitigates the need for remembering what it was we even needed to know so badly in the first place. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky has touted the phenomenon of forgetting information you trust a device to store (and hence remember) for you as “digital amnesia”. It found that 44 per cent of Americans admitted that their smart phone serves as their memory, holding almost everything they need to know or recall, and only 69.7 per cent said they would know their partner’s number without the aid of their contacts list. And it’s not just a thing for young digital natives – it’s a trend that’s equally and sometimes even more prevalent in older age groups. When we offload information to our device, using it as a crutch for our memory, we can forget that information alarmingly quickly. In one study that took place in a museum, participants found it harder to remember details of the objects they photographed a day after a tour compared to the works they purely observed.
Dr Kathryn Mills, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Oregon’s Developmental Social Neuroscience Laboratory, goes so far as to say that, “Reliance on digital devices – and the trust we place in them – can resemble a human relationship.” She explains: “Repeated experience with a reliable individual builds an association for that individual in our memory, telling us that this person can be depended on. If a digital device is continually reliable, then we will build that into our schema of that device.”
So how to dial down the reliance? There are plenty of ways to streamline the endless barrage of information you would otherwise capture in screenshots, including apps like Thinglist (which will categorise things like movies you want to watch, books you want to read, even interesting ideas and people you’ve heard about), and services such as LIKETOKNOW.IT (which automatically sends shopping links for pieces you’ve captured off Instagram). Instagram’s Saved section has a little-used functionality to categorise posts you’ve bookmarked. Apple’s new instant access and editing function on the iphone allows you to edit and send your screenshot without having to leave the app you’re in, meaning you can scribble a note on it, send it to a friend and be more likely to act on it. And don’t discount the simple act of writing things down. Research shows that when we put pen to paper, we recall what we’ve written more easily than if we’d typed it (or, as the case may be, taken a screenshot). Even Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg – arguably the most successful woman in tech globally – keeps a notebook on hand at all times.
Or, next time you go to press those two little buttons, why not make for one less screenshot and instead just get on Amazon and buy the book, or call and make a reservation at that hot new restaurant, or order the ingredients for the food blogger’s dish you’d love to make... not later, but now. Just don’t forget to ’gram it afterwards.