Maintaining our memory

camera-lens-and-memory-cards
How is your memory? 

There are many possibilities of looking to a certain time or memory from long ago. We can think about photos or videos that are made by our friends or family. It will certainly allow us to look at and remember very happy moments.

The biggest benefit of not focussing on retaining your memory by stocking up your memories online is that you can remember it how you want. Yes, you will have the most honest memory by looking at the video, but creating the memory how you remember is half the fun. The second benefit is that you challenge and maintain your possibility of remembering great moments. It will improve the time you are spending with friends and family because you can always think about the awesome time you spend with them.

Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin. – Barbara Kingsolver

The most fun of memories is that they aren’t the exact copy of what actually happened. For example I lost a close family member. We have many photos but not enough videos. The benefit is that you remember it as you want and you have all the positive feelings thinking back to them. You create your own memories. When something happened with multiple people present the memories of both people will rarely be the same. The consolidation of the memory happens differently for everyone. The health and amount of sleep you get each night will change how you remember what happened that day.

If you happen to remember something exactly how happened it doesn’t guarantee that the memory will remain the same for long. Memories will start to fade and they will be build again, allthough they will not remain 100% the same, small details will change. Take as example explaining a story to your friend, they may misunderstand a part or unconsciously change the story. By the time someone else hears the story from that person the story will be different on many parts. For some general stories the differences will change the story but will not hurt in the long run. It is only when these stories are important for example in court, that having a witness may not always be as watertight as we think.