A picture’s worth 1000 words according to the old adage. And that holds some truth. Descriptions of an event can require very extensive and complex detail to allow a listener or a reader to understand exactly what happened. But a picture can convey that information instantly.
The question I would ask is, “Are 1000 pictures worth even one word?”
My father loved to take pictures. He also had a reasonable eye for colour and composition. Every time he returned from a trip, the family would be convened, and a slide show presented. This show would take several hours. But he was a good photographer, not a brilliant one. There were rarely any stunning images. Most of the pictures he took were ordinary. It was his stories that made them interesting.
I also love to travel. However, many years ago it occurred to me that my camera was always between me and the world. Every time I put it up to my eye, I created interference between me thing I was trying to enjoy. I decided to restrict my picture taking during my travels. I like to believe I have many wonderful memories that I would not have if, instead, I had pictures.
I also loved to take pictures. Last summer the pandemic left me with nothing to do. So, I decided to review and clean up my pictures. Eleven carousels of slides (1100 pictures) had been untouched on a shelf for 30 years or more. (There were also many more boxes of prints, but that is another story.) I started by reviewing and culling the slides. I wound up with about 80 slides that I thought were worth transferring to digital for continued storage. Most of those were of people, sometimes in interesting or beautiful locations. It was not the locations that made the picture interesting or desirable, it was the people.
Just for fun, how many pictures do you have right now? Include all those burst shots and the ones with funny filters or frames. Is it 100 or 1,000 or 10,000? Why do you have them? What purpose do they serve? When do you expect to look at them again? Have you spent extra money to transfer them elsewhere (like the cloud) or to store them? Out of your total number, how many have you looked at in the past 6 months? Is any of them worth 1000 words?
What has been remembered? There is no information in a picture of something important. Do you know what it means or how to use it? No! But you have picture, so your brain and your memory need not be troubled.
We have confused images with memories. There is no memory in the images you’ve kept. Most of those images were created because it was possible to create them, not because they had any meaning. Modern cell phones keep touting better cameras. The technology has advanced to the point that the average Joe or Jane can take highly detailed and, because of technology, better quality images than ever before. And the cell phone companies keep advancing this capability to make their products more interesting. Why? Because customers are demanding it. Why?
For me, the ultimate demonstration of the futility of pictures happens in my classroom. I am a professor in a University. One of the courses I teach is statistics. I like to do problems on the board at the front of the class. I believe students get a better understanding of the concept if you use novel examples rather than relying on the pre-published information in the text or slides. My expectation is that students will work through the problem with me, and some do. But most wait until I have finished and hold up their cell phone to take a picture. They believe they have learned something. But I doubt it.
I am dubious that those images will ever be looked at again. Even if they are, they are not likely to be understood. If you write something down by hand, you have engaged a number of different pathways to learning. Even if you do not go back and study your notes, you have likely encoded some memory traces. Even better, if you go back and review those notes, you will recall a great deal of information. On the other hand, if you look at your picture from class, you will think you know something, but you don’t
So, what to do instead? Experience life and the world. Put effort into it. If you want to learn something, write it down or tell a story about it. Make it a memory. I once encountered two women who had taken one of my classes (not statistics) a couple of years previously. When I stopped to talk to them, they said my class was one of the best they had ever taken. So I asked what specific things they remembered from the class.
“Your stories,” was the answer.
