Capturing life or missing it: How mindful photo-taking can affect experiences

The impact of technology on mindfulness is theoretically and practically important. We propose that photo-taking can naturally promote mindful attention to visual aspects of experiences. Such mindful photo-taking can increase enjoyment of and memory for experiences, generate positive mood, and heighten life-satisfaction. When people adopt a social or temporal outward-focused perspective, threats to mindful photo-taking may negate these positive consequences. A social outward-focus can arise when considering others’ evaluations of shared photos. A temporal outward-focus can arise with the principal objective and outcome of photo-taking: creating durable visual representations of experiences. Ultimately, reviewing photos provides visual memory cues, can improve memory, and allows people to reminiscence, although these benefits depends on the stock of accumulated photos.