How ‘Pics Or It Didn’t Happen’ Is Ruining Your Life One Stupid Selfie At A Time

In March, I fulfilled a lifelong dream by going to WrestleMania. I don’t remember a fucking minute of the event.

I was so busy taking pics to post to Instagram, making dumb comments on Twitter and attempting to blog while watching, I missed a huge chunk of the show. I fell victim to the “pics or it didn’t happen” phenomena, which I didn’t even know was really a thing until this study came out in the journal Psychological Science.

The study called the habit the “point-and-shoot memory” and it proves that taking photos during a monumental event actually hinders an individual’s recollection in the days, months and years after the event.

Here’s the abstract:

Two studies examined whether photographing objects impacts what is remembered about them. Participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects and the objects’ locations in the museum than if they instead only observed the objects and did not photograph them. However, when participants zoomed in to photograph a specific part of the object, their subsequent recognition and detail memory was not impaired, and, in fact, memory for features that were not zoomed in on was just as strong as memory for features that were zoomed in on. This finding highlights key differences between people’s memory and the camera’s “memory” and suggests that the additional attentional and cognitive processes engaged by this focused activity can eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.

So basically, snapping millions of pics is ruining your vacation, spring break trip and your life. Instead of taking countless selfies to capture uber-specific moments, just live in the moment and talk about it with friends forever.

It’s way more fun than…

“Check out this pic! Remember at this concert I don’t recall when we were dancing to a song I can’t remember and that guy who’s name I forget said that really funny thing that I’m assuming was funny but don’t recall because I was too busy picking an Instagram filter. Good times.”

[via USA Today]

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling.