The modern world is a visual world. In 2017 alone, people around the globe took an estimated 1.2 trillion digital photos, according to a digital imaging intelligence source, InfoTrends.

1. In a Snap: The Impact of
Taking Photos on Memory
Retention
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2. The modern world is a visual world. In 2017 alone, people around the globe took an
estimated 1.2 trillion digital photos, according to a digital imaging intelligence source,
InfoTrends.
Often, people capture photos or look at them to remember an event or a feeling associated
with that event. Because of the very idea of remembering, various researchers in the past
few years looked at the impact of photography on the memory.
Is the process of taking photos improving or impairing a person's memory?
Photo-Taking Impairment Effect
Dr. Linda Henkel, a cognitive psychologist from Fairfield University, published her 2013
study about the impact of photo-taking on people's memory after a museum tour.
Twenty-eight university students were told to observe 15 objects and take photos of 15
others. When asked to remember the objects and their details the following day, students
remembered fewer details about the objects they photographed than those they merely
observed. This effect is called photo-taking impairment.

3. There's more to the results, though. Some students took close-up photos of the objects'
details, and the effect of this behavior on their memory was different. The study found
that those who zoomed in on specific parts of an object remembered more details than
those who took photos of the objects as a whole.
Remembering More Through Photography
In June of 2017, researchers from the University of Southern California published a study
similar to Dr. Henkel's. This time, 294 participants took a museum tour. Half of them
were given cameras and told to take photos, and the other half just went around and
observed.
After the tour, the participants answered a series of multiple-choice questions about the
objects they saw. The researchers found that those who took photos recognized seven
percent more objects than those who didn't.
For many people, taking photographs still means remembering an event and what feelings
that event evoked in them. But these studies have proven that memory is a complex
subject that is affected by factors beyond just visual stimuli.

4. Sources:
https://jaylynnstudios.com/
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797617694868
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613504438
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspa0000055.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368117301687