Thank Goodness For All Of My Amazing Social Media Memories

Another one of my facebook memories, revealed itself over the weekend.  My reaction is mostly positive, with the occasional “Oh yeah, I forgot about that!”  As the summer months arrive more and more of our facebook memories will pop up.  It makes sense because these are the days we’ve created those amazing experiences.  The odd thing is, most of those memories will be pre 2020.  Not much happened in any of our lives during Covid19, except maybe gaining 10 pounds!

It got me thinking…is it possible sharing these memories on social media to begin with may have an added benefit to remember them?  A recent study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking suggests maybe so.  It’s called the “mnemonic effect” or “mnemotechnic”.  Basically when you view something on social media and your memory of the event is triggered. Clever advertising becomes successful upon its application.  When the consumer views or hears an advertisement, he/she is persuaded in making a buying decision that is sometimes contradictory to the intention of the advertiser.

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This holds true with certain tastes, sounds, and even smells.  I am sure there have been many studies based on that statement.  In fact “Smells do bring back memories,” says Dr. Ken Heilman, James E. Rooks Jr. Distinguished Professor Neurology and Health Psychology at the University of Florida. “Smell goes into the emotional parts of the brain and the memory parts, whereas words go into thinking parts of the brain.”  (read the full article here)

Memories are an important part of my life.  I hope I will always be able to remember them, if not by my 5 senses, then with the help of a conversation with a friend.

I purposely left out using technology as an aid, because I don’t want to admit that I can’t remember anyone’s phone number without the contact list in my phone.