The downside of capturing too many memories

The irony isn’t lost on me that in scouring my Evernote for a particular article that I saved, I came across a gem of an article that a client sent to me in 2013. It’s about how when we save too much, what’s truly save-worthy gets shadowed by what’s not.

The Washington Posts’s When we save every memory, we forget which ones are special was written by author Dara Horn. As a cultural anthropology major, it’s thrilling to see how she uses a story of the ancient Jews of Cairo storing their damaged documents to spin a relevant, modern realization: When we save every memory, we forget which ones are special. 

Horn draws parallels between the ancient Hebrew collections of banal notes from daily life with our own overflowing clouds of information and photos. She theorizes that we keep such a vast cache of pictures in the cloud out of “fear of mortality.” She adds:

"What is lost in that cloud is the art of forgetting, the selective memory that distinguishes trash from treasure.”

Do you see as much value in the art of forgetting as in the art of capturing every sunset or dinner out? Do you see any value in Horn’s proposed art of forgetting? How might this change the amount of photos you snap throughout the week? Please share in the comments. 

If you have trouble accessing The Washington Post’s original article, read it here.