Memories

[rowdy]

I was talking today with my SO about memories.

She and I don't have a lot of memories of our respective childhoods, and they are not backed up by many photos or videos.

Our daughter has an almost daily record of her life, in both photos and videos (although mainly photos).

So her memories of childhood would continually be reinforced by visual reminders of what happened on the various occasions.  Selected photos are also uploaded to a photo gallery site and we do glance through early photos occasionally, so the offspring is well aware of lots of things that happened to her in her early life.

Would that have an impact on her ability to make new memories of things that happen in her future life?

Does the human memory have effectively unlimited capacity?

Anyone else capture daily images of their offspring (or even themselves) and use them to reinforce childhood memories?

[futurecrime]

Oh man I think about this A LOT. I've got a four year old daughter and she's made me ponder the effect on an entire generation whose lives are so thoroughly documented.  For me, there's a handful of photos from my childhood, and just one can act like a proxy for three or four years of my life. And the rest is filled in by nebulous recollections and constructed memories which I think are a result of my mum or dad telling me the same stories repeatedly over the years.

It's crazy to think when this new generation grows up so many of them will have this video and photographic archive of their lives. And they'll have had access to it all along, potentially continually refreshing their memories. I wonder how this will affect their psyches. Part of our development is letting aspects of ourselves die off and being able to forget things.

I do show my daughter videos and pictures from her earlier years and it's interesting to see how quickly she can become seemingly disconnected from them, as if a picture of her as a three year old is almost like a halfway removed entity, not quite herself and not quite someone else. Which I think is probably exactly the right way to see it, so maybe it's not so different to me looking at an old picture of myself. It's a fascinating subject anyway.

[tp4tissue]

My server has over 11000 movies now.

I've seen nearly all of them, I don't remember all of them, and I don't rewatch 90% of it..


Your digital recollection of the ages function in the same way.

[fohat.digs]

The capabilities of the human mind are astonishing, but there is a huge "use it or lose it" component that we tend to ignore.

Imagine a thousand years ago when there was an illiterate, a travelling minstrel, who would go from town to town and recite the entire "Odyssey" word-for-word, without ever having read it on paper for himself!

We live in the age of distraction and I believe that our memories are suffering from the availability of archives that we can freely access.
 

[futurecrime]

My server has over 11000 movies now.

I've seen nearly all of them, I don't remember all of them, and I don't rewatch 90% of it..


Your digital recollection of the ages function in the same way.

In all seriousness, when I was writing my post, I was imagining you posting this. Thanks for not  disappointing me . X

[tp4tissue]

My server has over 11000 movies now.

I've seen nearly all of them, I don't remember all of them, and I don't rewatch 90% of it..


Your digital recollection of the ages function in the same way.

In all seriousness, when I was writing my post, I was imagining you posting this. Thanks for not  disappointing me . X

Tp4 = Reliable like Toyota Camry..

[fohat.digs]

She and I don't have a lot of memories of our respective childhoods, and they are not backed up by many photos or videos.

Much of this is personal, too. My sister and I are now in our 60s, and I was always "the smart one" and she was always "the dumb one" but that was because I did well in school. Recently, we were talking, and she said something like "Do you remember when you were 9 and Daddy gave you a fishing rod for Christmas?" which of course I did not remember. I knew that I had a fishing rod, but those details were long lost. Then she said: "You remember. That was the year that (our neighbors down the street) got .... " and she proceeded to tell me what our friends had gotten that year, too.

I can only figure that the mind can fill up its capacity with something, and we do not always control what will be remembered and what will be forgotten.
 

[tp4tissue]

She and I don't have a lot of memories of our respective childhoods, and they are not backed up by many photos or videos.

Much of this is personal, too. My sister and I are now in our 60s, and I was always "the smart one" and she was always "the dumb one" but that was because I did well in school. Recently, we were talking, and she said something like "Do you remember when you were 9 and Daddy gave you a fishing rod for Christmas?" which of course I did not remember. I knew that I had a fishing rod, but those details were long lost. Then she said: "You remember. That was the year that (our neighbors down the street) got .... " and she proceeded to tell me what our friends had gotten that year, too.

I can only figure that the mind can fill up its capacity with something, and we do not always control what will be remembered and what will be forgotten.
 

That... Or she's a ruminating psychopath who's been brewing fishing rod jealousy along with neighbor gift jealousy for over 50 years,  Only to discuss it casually with you right before initiating your untimely demise..

//Just sayn'

hahahahahahahahahhaaha

[Findecanor]

Memories are subjective also because different things have different emotional impact at the time they happen.
Tonight I had dinner with my mom and she told of when I had been stung in her home by a cactus that had fallen on me at a visit a couple of years ago. I had no recollection of it happening but she had because she had felt responsible for it happening to me at the time.

[tp4tissue]

Memories are subjective also because different things have different emotional impact at the time they happen.
Tonight I had dinner with my mom and she told of when I had been stung in her home by a cactus that had fallen on me at a visit a couple of years ago. I had no recollection of it happening but she had because she had felt responsible for it happening to me at the time.

Real mommas boy arn't cha'

[pr0ximity]

People have always had family home videos, there are stacks of VHS tapes in my parents' attic. No one I know turned out any stranger for that, I can't imagine having more baby pictures and home videos would have a negative effect on memory generation. People remember what is meaningful to them.

[tp4tissue]

People have always had family home videos, there are stacks of VHS tapes in my parents' attic. No one I know turned out any stranger for that, I can't imagine having more baby pictures and home videos would have a negative effect on memory generation. People remember what is meaningful to them.

how long do those tapes last in attics..

I tried out an old vhs I had , and it's noticeably degraded, and the tracking is not so good ..

[suicidal_orange]

Interesting topic, I think there's another side to this too - emotions.

I don't know how it is for anyone else but my memory is good at factual recall of events, but there's no emotion attached.  I recently re-read something I've written eight years ago about an experience that was 13 years ago and while remembering the events portrayed my emotional interpretation is completely different - the situation was either causing me to be depressed borderline suicidal (eight years ago) or it was the last time my life had meaning/purpose (current interpretation).  Which of these are actually accurate, if either is?  It's impossible to say.

There were pictures taken at the time and in them I looked happy, but knowing me if I weren't capable of looking happy I wouldn't have been with people to have my photo taken so that proves nothing.  I have 'deleted' as much of my past as possible including digital photos, all my assignments and contact details of the people I've left behind, the only things that remain are my attempts at working myself out which is a neverending project.

Will children be aided by having a daily record?  I doubt it, much like the boxes of unsorted photos under my mum's bed (mainly from holidays and family gatherings) there are so many no-one will ever bother to find the right ones.  This might be easier if everything's on Facebook or similar but someone still needs to remember where and/or when something happened, and that's assuming they tagged everything accurately when it was uploaded.  But even if they do will looking at an image allow them to revisit the time/situation or will a current emotional interpretation be overlaid, corrupting the 'memory'?

[iri]

I remember myself since the age of 1.5. I don't need no photos

[rowdy]

I remember myself since the age of 1.5. I don't need no photos

In how much detail?

I can remember things from when Rowdy was only about 4yo (e.g. littlest brother coming home for the first time).  But not much else that is coherent.

[iri]

I remember myself since the age of 1.5. I don't need no photos

In how much detail?

I remember a book my mother was reading to me. The memories are very vivid. I would recognise the book now if I saw it.

Interestingly, I couldn't talk at that time, but understood the speech very well.

[Blaise170]

I would take the opposite approach and disagree with many out there: digital storage has made us more intelligent as a species. It's estimated that our brains can hold as much as 2.5 petabytes of memory, though the less any given memory blocks are used, the less we'll be able to remember about them. Despite the huge amount of potential effective memory we have, it cannot always be readily recalled. Human memory could be broken into two basic parts: RAM, which we use on an almost constant basis, and cold storage where our memories are stored.

And I'd argue that the advent of digital storage allows us to archive readily recordable information to recall later, and focus our computing power on more important things, like disease research. And I think this can be extended even further to say that cybernetic enhancements are an inevitable evolution for our species. Within the next 100 years, we may literally be able to increase our brain's storage simply by attaching the newest chips. Science is already experimenting with cybernetics that are better than our natural bodies. So is it necessarily bad that we don't remember every page of the Odyssey?

[noisyturtle]

Personally I think photos are utterly pointless other than to share information. When I see people at an event or their kids big game and they have their phones out I just feel bad for them that they are missing out on the actual experience to create some poorly shot video no one is ever going to actually watch. Who the **** is on their deathbed thinking to themselves, "I would give anything to see that 2014 4th of July fireworks display again."

[romevi]

Yesterday I was at my daughter's musical, and I realized after five minutes that wasn't really paying attention to the performance; I was just looking at my phone for "good shots."
For the remainder of the performance I had my phone down.

I did record her solo, though, as I knew when it was coming.

[Kavik]

I remember myself since the age of 1.5. I don't need no photos

In how much detail?

I remember a book my mother was reading to me. The memories are very vivid. I would recognise the book now if I saw it.

Interestingly, I couldn't talk at that time, but understood the speech very well.

I am the same way. I have memories before the age of 2. I remember stuff like defecating in my diaper without even feeling the urge or act of pooping; I only noticed when I sat down and felt a squish. I remember being put in a crib at my grandparent's house (I probably couldn't even walk at this point). I remember having my diaper changed and the cold sensation of the anti-butt rash lotion being applying to my butt crack. I remember waking up in the middle of the night for the first time and the eerie feeling of no sound, no TV, just a lamp on, myself wandering around wondering what to do and why things were so still. I remember my mom's handing me over the half-door to the daycare lady at church and playing in silence around the other kids because we couldn't talk (IIRC) and wondering what the heck I was supposed to do with the dried macaroni in the plastic tub (I still don't understand how that's a toy).

Personally I think photos are utterly pointless other than to share information. When I see people at an event or their kids big game and they have their phones out I just feel bad for them that they are missing out on the actual experience to create some poorly shot video no one is ever going to actually watch. Who the **** is on their deathbed thinking to themselves, "I would give anything to see that 2014 4th of July fireworks display again."

This is partly why I stopped taking so many photos (or any) when I go out. I use to be the documentarian of my group in HS because I had a digital camera. It's nice having those photos now, but, after a while, I noticed I wasn't really enjoying the experience; I was just taking photos.

Interesting topic, I think there's another side to this too - emotions.

I don't know how it is for anyone else but my memory is good at factual recall of events, but there's no emotion attached.  I recently re-read something I've written eight years ago about an experience that was 13 years ago and while remembering the events portrayed my emotional interpretation is completely different - the situation was either causing me to be depressed borderline suicidal (eight years ago) or it was the last time my life had meaning/purpose (current interpretation).  Which of these are actually accurate, if either is?  It's impossible to say.

There were pictures taken at the time and in them I looked happy, but knowing me if I weren't capable of looking happy I wouldn't have been with people to have my photo taken so that proves nothing.  I have 'deleted' as much of my past as possible including digital photos, all my assignments and contact details of the people I've left behind, the only things that remain are my attempts at working myself out which is a neverending project.

Will children be aided by having a daily record?  I doubt it, much like the boxes of unsorted photos under my mum's bed (mainly from holidays and family gatherings) there are so many no-one will ever bother to find the right ones.  This might be easier if everything's on Facebook or similar but someone still needs to remember where and/or when something happened, and that's assuming they tagged everything accurately when it was uploaded.  But even if they do will looking at an image allow them to revisit the time/situation or will a current emotional interpretation be overlaid, corrupting the 'memory'?

I've also noticed this on a few occasions. I re-read the chat logs and emails that led to a falling out with a friend recently (from 13 years ago). At the time, I thought I was completely in the right and didn't understand how he could be so obtuse. When I analyze the sequence of events now (which I'd since distorted slightly, probably to fit with my interpretation and retelling over the years), I can see that we were both right and wrong in some ways.

I've also had some memories that can't possibly be right when I consider the timeline and look at dates of other things that happened. I don't have an explanation for those. For example, I remember seeing The Fugitive in a movie theater because it was the first movie I'd ever seen in a movie theater. But I also saw Aladin in a theater (albeit a dollar theater), which came out almost a year before. I also couldn't picture what a movie theater looked like when my dad invited me to see Jurassic Park, which was also after Aladin (I was picturing a basketball stadium with jumbotron in the middle). The only explanation is that Aladin was in the dollar theater much, much later than its original release or my memory is very faulty.

-----------------------

For me, it seems that if I don't think about a memory for a really long time, I'll forget about it or forget details, but, if I think about a memory too much, I'll corrupt it by adding or exaggerating details, almost as if I am not recalling the original event anymore, but I'm recalling my last recollection of it instead. In effect, I'm creating VHS generational degradation of my own memories, which is a bit scary.

[iri]

Who the **** is on their deathbed thinking to themselves, "I would give anything to see that 2014 4th of July fireworks display again."

I like to record videos of our barbecue parties, they remind me of my friends overseas.