Well, actually I think they do matter, but a recent article in the Wall Street Journal “The Power of the Earliest Memories” by Sue Shellenbarger included the following quote: “While the lives of many youngsters today are heavily documented in photos and video on social media and stored in families’ digital archives, studies suggest photos and videos have little impact.” A recent study by Carole Peterson and coworkers found that the existence of photos and videos didn’t have an impact on kids’ memories. The article goes on to state, “Parents play a bigger role in helping determine not just how many early memories children can recall, but how children interpret and learn from the events of their earliest experiences.”
I’m not convinced. All too often, I see my own children reviewing the photo books I have created. They are clearly interested, and I cannot believe my kids would spend time looking at photos if they were unimportant.
What I can say is that perhaps the photos alone are not enough and that when we are taking photos we need to occasionally step back and talk about what is happening. And you know what, we might even enjoy hearing what our kids’ thoughts are.
All About Images Blog 