Our ability to document hit a new high with the advent of Microsoft’s SenseCam, an automatic wearable camera with a wide-angle lens, and as more people participate in “life logging”. “Look at Snapchat for example, users are taking those photos to communicate, rather than to remember.” “Many times people are taking photos – not to serve as a later memory cue, but rather to say this is how I’m feeling right here, right now,” says Henkel. While older adults adopting digital cameras tend to use them as memory tools, younger generations tend to use the photos taken on them as a means of communication. Research has confirmed what many of us suspect – that the primary role of photography has shifted from commemorating special events and remembering family life, to a way of communicating to our peers, forming our own identity, and bolstering social bonds. But the shift from film to digital has also changed why we take photos and how we use them.
