We were riding the gondola up the mountain in Steamboat last week and told Katy that she had been on it before. She looked confused and then said, “We didn’t take a picture of it.” She was saying that she didn’t remember it because she hadn’t seen a picture of it. I think this generation is going to have a much more vivid recollection of their childhood experiences simply because we have so many more photographs and videos of everything.
This could be a useful educational tool. If you can photograph your kids doing things you want them to remember and then show those pictures to them as they grow up, they may have a much better memory of the things they learned. For example, photographes of their visit to a fish hatchery are likely to help them remember the experience and what they learned during the tour. While they might not completely forget the experience sans the photographs, it is likely that much of it would be relegated to background knowledge where the individual facts learned would be less accessible.