What I learned from 45 photos


Before I dig into the results of the survey, I’m still taking submissions! I want to know about 5 photos you’ve taken. If you’re interested, please complete the survey first and then come back and read about it. ☺

I asked people to tell me about the last 5 photos they took. For each photo, I wanted to know what the photo depicted, what the intention for that photo was, and whether that intention was fulfilled.

I ran this survey because I wanted to probe some of my fundamental assumptions behind L8R. Specifically, I believe:

  1. We take photos to remember things.
  2. Then we forget to remember them.

I received 9 responses for a total of 45 photos — a pretty small sampling. So consider my analysis anecdotal, rather than statistical.

Do we take pictures to remember?

Yes we do. I categorized the intention of each photo as follows:

Send: 12
(SMS, 1:1 Snapchat, email, etc)

Broadcast: 18
(Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc)

Remember: 12
(“To remind myself for later,” “Something to come back to,” etc.)

No reason: 3
(“just wanted to capture the moment,” etc.)

There’s a key point here, which is that every photo we take is paired with intention. Even “I just wanted to capture the moment” is an intention of sorts. And of those intentions, “to remember” is a significant one.

What are the sort of things we want to remember?

Okay, we take photos to remember. To remember what, exactly? Here are a few examples from the survey:

  • Tasks
    The output of a whiteboard session; a sign to fix
  • Aspirations
    A visual design to recreate; a motorcycle route that looks fun
  • Treasured moments
    A delicious meal; the family relaxing on the couch

Do we actually remember those things?

To properly answer this question, I’ve updated the survey to ask about older photos, not the most recent 5. But the results from this survey were still revealing. I asked people whether or not they had fulfilled their intention for the photo. The results:

Yes: 28
No: 17

I force-choiced the answers, so something like “I guess?” went into Yes and “Not yet” went into No.

8 of the 17 No’s were aborted shares; the snow didn’t look as nice as he thought it would, the sign wasn’t as funny as she initially thought. These unfulfilled intentions aren’t really problematic, since they were explicitly abandoned.

In contrast, the remaining 9 No’s were instances of failed memory — the photo-takers “forgot to remember.” This is more problematic.

Through another lens: 9 out of 12 photos taken with the intention of remembering were forgotten.

Thoughtz

There’s no reason for us to forget to remember. We just need a solution that reminds us to remember. Associating a photo with a memory trigger (next week, when I’m here again, etc.) is the right tool for the job.

Of course, these tools exist. Reminders, Evernote, etc. But they are clunky when it comes to photo-taking, for multiple reasons. I will dedicate a separate post to this subject, but the TL;DR is that the intention to remember happens at the moment we snap a picture. Accordingly, the function that accommodates this intention has to happen at the same moment or immediately after.