With the era of smartphones with amazing picture qualities, now more than ever, it is a lot easier to take pictures of whatever, whenever, but then it begs the question, why? Why take pictures? Personally, I love taking pictures and one of my favorite pastime is going through old photos, nothing like the bliss of getting to relieve the happy memories again or remembering lost moments. Here are a few benefits of taking pictures:
Increases Attention
Contrary to popular belief, taking pictures is not the opposite of living the moment. Ironically, every picture taken is simply that memory captured, frozen in time for however long we want it to be. Interestingly, taking pictures actually helps induce attention to the moment as found by Alixandra Barasch, a researcher, and her team. The participants in said research that were allowed to take pictures had better recognition of what they had seen than those that weren’t allowed to. Further research has shown that taking pictures does increases the enjoyment of the experience.
Negativity Bias
Ever heard of the negativity bias? it is the tendency to pay more attention to and recall more often negative information far more than positive ones. You’re likely to take more pictures of happy times, times when you’re in a good mood. This helps you remember those good times more as opposed to the natural tendency of recalling bad times.
Journaling
Taking pictures is a way of keeping track of one’s life and the different happenings. It is a form of storage for moments and memories one has. Pictures have the ability to bring rushing, moments experienced at the time they were taken, what you were doing, where you were, and sometimes even, how you felt. One constant thing in life is change, transitions are inevitable and pictures help store these memories from past experiences.
I asked a group of my friends if they liked taking pictures and why or why not. One of the most popular reasons for those that don’t like to is that they were camera shy or just don’t know how to pose. Taking pictures is not about having the perfect poses or posting on social media, it’s about treasuring memories and being able to look back on them.
So this Christmas, I hope you’ll be able to make pleasant memories and capture them. Cheers to taking more pictures, yeah?
What are your thoughts on this? Love to read your comments so don’t hesitate to drop them, I’ll reply!
Here’s a fun question for you if you’re like me and already love to take pictures. Would you still love them as much if there wasn’t any social media to post them? Let’s chat below!
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Show comments Hide commentsWell, I might still love to take them for memory sake. Not all pictures can be posted too, you know 🙂
Well done, Ade
And not all have to be posted 😀 Thanks for reading