Screens Are Stealing Our Memories

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A few weeks ago, I stood in front of a waterfall — not just any waterfall, but the kind that thunders into your chest, cools your face, and makes you feel so small you forget how important your inbox is. I felt awe. For about three seconds.

Then I reached for my phone.

I don’t remember how the water sounded. I remember how many tries it took to get the right slow-motion shot. I don’t remember the mist on my skin. I remember which Instagram filter made the green look lush but not too lush. Somewhere between composing the perfect frame and waiting for it to upload, I missed the moment. Or rather, I documented it so hard that I forgot to live it.

It’s strange, isn’t it? We capture everything — and yet retain almost nothing.

We Used to Remember Differently

Ask someone born before the smartphone era about their childhood, and you’ll often get these oddly specific memories: the smell of their grandmother’s kitchen, the rough texture of a school desk, the way a summer evening felt. These memories weren’t curated. They weren’t stored in cloud backups or shared in 24-hour stories. They were felt, lived, and deeply imprinted.

Now? We outsource remembering. To our camera rolls, our Notes app, our digital calendars. Instead of encoding moments into…