Taking Photos Can Increase Your Enjoyment of an Experience

As I replay the events of the day in my head – it’s 1:30 a.m. what else could I possibly be doing? – my daughter’s less than impressed plea (actually, it sounded more like an order) comes to mind, “No more pictures!” She was annoyed at me this afternoon for sneaking a pic of her during her Acro4dance class. Truth be told, her strength and sheer will power amaze me and I want to put together a montage of her back walkovers, hand stands and contortions. She was not having it. “Put your phone away!” She glared at me before executing another daredevil acrobatic move.

She’s right. I do use my phone a lot. But, in my defence, it’s mostly to take pictures of her. In fact, of the 30,000 photos I have on the Cloud, most are shots of her. I love photography and I was ‘snapshot-happy’ long before cell phones existed. 

I was given my first camera when I turned 7. It was a Brownie Bullet and it was a square, marvellous and magical film camera that fit my small hands perfectly. I was so proud to be trusted with such a beautiful device. I loaded the film carefully and very judiciously took photos of what I deemed was worthy.  Film was expensive. You didn’t waste it. I pulled my camera out on special occasions and was given permission to take it with me and use it for the end of year school trip that year. I clutched tightly in my hands. Despite my best efforts, only one or two of the photos from every roll I shot were ever “keepers”. 

My father, who is arguably one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever known, was an avid photographer and he built a dark room in our attic that year. I spent hours in there with him, watching photos magically appear in chemical baths, under the reddish hue of the darkroom’s safelight. He took many family photos of course, but he also shot a lot of fine art, street and nature photography. He taught me the value of lying still in the grass for hours just to capture the soulful look of a lonely cow, getting up before dawn to watch the fog lift over a marsh and to see beauty in everything from the lined, leathery face of the neighborhood matriarch to the symmetry of a beautiful door.  (I love doors. More on particular obsession in another post.)

In the 70s, taking photographs was mostly reserved for special occasions – weddings, birthdays, summer vacations and trips abroad. They were often shot on chrome film, then viewed during family slide shows where every third or fourth photo was upside down because it had been placed in the slide projector the wrong way. Anyone who’s ever had to sit through the 200 badly-composed and boring slides their uncle Harry’s latest trip knows what I’m talking about. There were also the hilarious photos of our last big family bash which I loved. (I’m French Canadian and both my parents came from large families so I have LOADS of relatives). Adults saw slide shows as the perfect excuse to get together and drink copious amounts of cocktails and make hilarious commentary on what the presenter thought were works of art, while us kids goofed around and ate potato chips by the handfuls. (Feeling nostalgic? Watch this clip of Mad Men. Don Draper talks about the Kodak slide projector’s carousel.) But I digress.

Pre-cell phones, families displayed about a dozen of photos of themselves and their loved ones in their homes. Today, the average middle-class American family “walks amid 85 pictures of themselves and their pets.” And, those are physical pictures that someone took the time to have printed. As for electronic photos, the numbers are epic. According to the Omnicore Agency, every month, there are 1 billion active users just on Instagram alone. And of those users, 120.7 million are from the US. Worldwide, Instagram users upload over 100 million photos and videos to Instagram e-v-e-r-y day. Kind of makes my 124 posts feel like I’m not trying hard enough. Ha!

And that’s just Instagram users. Even the least tech-savvy of us take dozens of photos a day. With digital files and phones with memories bigger than personal computers once had, we can shoot photos to our heart’s content capturing moments we want to remember forever or until we get a pic that perfectly captures the moment the way we want to remember it.  

Our feelings about our constant obsession with taking photos of every moment, every smile, concert, outing and experience are still evolving. As recently as two years ago, many people  believed that taking photos is the opposite of living in the moment. That it removes you from the experience. Artists, including the late Prince, Jack White, Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar forbade the use of cell phones during their concerts because they felt it took away from the joy of the experience of being in at a live event. Meanwhile, psychologists started studying the effects our ever-present smartphones have on our memories. They started with the assumption  that smartphone cameras are bad for our happiness and our memory. What they found was quite the opposite. 

A 2017 study by Psychological Science found that taking photos during an experience helped people remember visuals more accurately, even if they never looked at them again. Photo taking forces the photographer to pay closer attention to the visual aspects of the scene therefore committing images into their memories. It also found that taking photos can actually increase enjoyment of the experience. So taking dozens of photos every day to capture life’s special moments? Keep it up. You’ll remember them well and fondly. (We know memories can be curated.)

However, according to Alix Barasch, one of the authors of the study and an assistant professor in Marketing at the NYU, the value of taking photos diminishes considerably, when you take a picture for the sole purpose of sharing it online. “When we take photos with goal of sharing, it makes us think about how others are going to evaluate those photos,” she told Wired magazine. “It makes us concerned about how we’re going to look to others and that can lead to self-conscious emotions like anxiety.”

It’s certainly more difficult not to be hugely self-aware, or self-conscious when smart phone cameras come out. I must admit I fall into the ranks of people who have a practiced, this-is-my-good-side, selfie-smile. In December of 2019, Instagram and Facebook even considered removing the “likes” feature under posts because they felt users might post more if they didn’t feel the pressure of getting likes for their posts. But, taking away the “like momentum” celebrities and influencers need to get on their content would reduce the amount they can charge brands for promoting their products. So, you guessed it, the “likes” feature is staying, at least for the time being.

The good news is, influencers and celebrities are not the only ones benefitting from positive virtual feedback from their FB and Instagram friends.  In May 2017, the RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health) and the Young Health Movement, examined the positive and negative effects of social media on young people’s health and published their findings in a report called #StatusOfMind. And although we’re highly aware of the negative impact of social media can have on our perception of ourselves, (Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), cyberbullying, body image issues, and symptoms of anxiety and depression due to feelings of not measuring up to others), social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, especially in these times of social distancing, can also have a very real positive impact on users’ day to day. Young people increasingly turn to social media platforms like FB and Instagram for social and emotional support, access to health information, shared health experiences, for self-expression and self-identity and for making, maintaining and building relationships. Social media gives people a platform to identify their strengths and put forward their best self. 

And now, since the onset of the Covid-19, the global pandemic that has upended our lives, taking photos has become more important than ever. The snaps we take of our kids wearing colorful masks, looking as curious, silly and exuberant as ever, document our spirit and our resilience as we do our best to go about our daily lives. The photos we post of ourselves smiling under our colorful masks, remind our friends and followers that we’re all in this together. And when we look back, they’ll remind our children that we took advantage of these times of social isolation to build stronger bonds with each other and to seek out and appreciate the beauty amidst the chaos.

So, post that photo, write that blog, like, comment or just scroll through your Instagram feed and add new people to your online community. I can attest to the great feeling of accomplishment and connection I get from my Facebook and Instagram friends’ comments, shout outs and likes. (My blog just made FeedSpots list of Top 15 Insomnia Blogs, Website and Influencers and I am thrilled! Thank you all so much for reading, commenting and liking!)

When class was over, my daughter ran to me, beaming with pride.  “Can I see the pictures you took?” I handed her my phone and watched as she smiled and “favorited” the ones she liked the best. I knew we’d look at them again with her dad when we got home, and that they would end up in a printed Chatbook after that and that what had been an hour-long activity would continue to bring us joy and remain engraved in our memories forever. 

How many photos do you take in a day? Do many of them end up on your various social media feeds? How does looking at your friends feeds make you feel? Connected or lonelier than ever?