Editor’s Letter: “I hate selfies”

It has turned into a freakin’ epidemic. What was once the pastime of the vain, fanciful fringes of society has become so mainstream that even the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States, Ba- rack Obama, couldn’t help himself…at a memorial.

It seems that this generation is obsessed with cataloguing every single moment of their lives, even the ones that no one cares about. The enormous popularity of the mobile app Snapchat just shows how ready we all are to whip out our phone, pull a ridiculous face and not bat an eyelid. If you attempted to try and take a picture of yourself in public 5 years ago, people would think you were weird. My opinion on it hasn’t drastically changed since. Although it’s always been the bane of the amateur photographer – not being able to get in their own pictures. Looking through photos of previous experiences and trying to find that one snap where you were brave enough to offer someone your phone to take it, who then duly kept their thumb over the lens or forgot to put the flash on. It’s happened to us all.

It seems that this generation is obsessed with cataloguing every single moment of their lives

However, new psychological re- search shows that the more we take pictures of things, not just ourselves but everything, the less likely we are to remember the event at all. Linda Henkel, of Fairfield University in Connecticut, claims that we rely on technology “to remember the event for us” and therefore we choose not to look at it in detail “which has a negative impact on how well we remember these experiences.”

It sounds far-fetched but if you think about it, it makes scary sense. The amount of times you have been on holiday, taken 1000 pictures and not remembered the name of a single place you have been. And when did you last go through all of those pictures you took? It seems that we are so obsessed with trying to visually remember and cherish everything, that in fact we ironically do the opposite.

We just don’t give our brains enough time to process the information. Over the next week, take some time out to really experience everything, and look at things with just a bit more of a keen eye. When you are on a night out, try and keep your phone in your pocket, leave your pout at home and see how much of the night you remember without needing to snap.

Obviously, don’t stop taking photos. Even if you use them for selfies. But learn to appreciate your eyes and what you are seeing. Because it is the best camera you have.