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.
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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.