I have 53,429 photos and videos on my phone. Does that matter?

Down a rabbit hole of photo-taking behaviors in search of a better approach.

I was shocked recently when I glanced at the number of photos and videos on my phone: 53,429.

Then I headed down a rabbit hole.

My camera roll dates back to 2012, so that’s an average of 4,452 photos or videos per year. If I keep up this pace for another five years, that brings my number to 75,689. Let’s keep going:

• 10 years from now: 97,929.

• 20 years: 142,469

• 30 years: 186,989

On the one hand, I like having some of these photos. Every so often, I’ll look through photos and videos of my kids when they were younger. The ability to instantly transport to a moment from the past is, at times, magical and joyful.

But 53,429 is a lot. And 186,989 is an unfathomable amount of media. Realistically, how many of them will I actually look at?

I worry that these 53,429 little squares represent tiny instances of being focused on a screen, not the world around me. I’ve also noticed that it’s become harder to find anything in this mess. Recently, I needed to find a few photos for a school project for one of my kids. It was exhausting searching through the archive, and it took way more time than I would’ve liked.

I did discover one reason why I have so many. I seem to do this thing where I take several shots of the same exact scene.

Here are four almost identical photos of my dog, Otis, taken in sequence.

Here are six photos of the same sunset in Mexico.

Remember when smoke from Canadian wildfires spread into other parts of North America? Here’s what it looked like from the same spot in Times Square, then again, again, and again:

Why do I do this? I think it’s because I’m searching for the money shot. But for whom? I’m not a photographer. I’m not planning to publish these anywhere. So, I must be trying to snap the best possible photo for my future self.

Which is odd, because here I am today, and I don’t care so much about quality. I don’t actually want duplicate images of my dog staring at what I assume was a squirrel in the park. One is fine.

This deep-dive got me thinking: Does it matter that I’ve taken tens of thousands of photos? What am I losing by automatically grabbing my phone and pressing on the button over and over?

What photo-taking does to our experiences.

A few studies in recent years offer some clues about what happens when we snap photos during experiences, like visiting an aquarium or eating out at a restaurant.

An extensive 2016 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology sought an answer to that question.

In the study, researchers surveyed people who had just participated in an activity. In one experiment, it was a bus tour of a city. In another, it was eating a meal at a restaurant. Another one involved people visiting an art museum.

Surprisingly, when people took photos of an experience, they reported feeling more engaged in it. And they said they enjoyed it more. Photo-taking boosted enjoyment of positive experiences.

“We show that, relative to not taking photos, photo-taking can heighten enjoyment of positive experiences, and does so because photo-taking increases engagement,” researchers wrote.

But, according to a separate study, that changes with the experience.

In this study, published in 2019 in Psychology and Marketing, researchers wanted to know what happens when you take photos during highly enjoyable experiences—as researchers put it, the “ones you really get immersed in, things that are a 8-, 9- and 10- on a 10-point scale of enjoyment.”

Participants reported enjoying the experiences less when they took photos. And when they were asked to shoot photos to later share on social media, they enjoyed the experience even less.

“We get so focused on picture-taking, we miss the experience itself,” said one of the researchers.

It seems when you’re doing something moderately enjoyable (out to lunch), taking photos of it may increase enjoyment. But if you’re immersed in a highly enjoyable experience (watching a compelling video clip), it may do the opposite.

Thinking about what we’re doing with photos.

Here’s what I’ve learned: Not all experiences are alike. Not all require a photo. (And fewer require six duplicates.) It comes down to intentionality, and deciding when and why to grab for your phone—and when to resist the urge.

It reminds me of something that Amber Case told me earlier this year:

It’s important to investigate how many tools, how many pieces of technology, how many systems we touch in a given day. Technology, like a gas, seems to have expanded to fill up all of our available space and time. So much so that we don’t even have time to think about what we’re doing with it.

After seeing that number—53,429—I’ve tried to be more purposeful. I think: Is this an important moment I want to be present in? Then maybe I don’t need a photo. Or maybe I can snap one and put my phone away.

To move along this new habit, I’ve employed a tip I learned earlier this year—asking myself: Do I really need to do this right now?

It has helped. But it’s a work in progress. By the time I finished writing this, I had snapped a couple of photos at a family gathering. Then again during the trip home. My new total: 53,440.

Thanks for reading.

Eric