Where would we be without our personal memories? We use them to maintain our personal identities, to start and mediate relationships, to shape our likes, dislikes, to regulate our moods and to solve problems. They allow us to share rich life experiences and tell our stories to family and friends. There is no question about the importance of the memories of the events that happen in our lives.

As more and more media become digital (whether these be photos, videos, olfactory or haptic cues), new ways of cueing our memory are emerging.

Snapchat, originally known and popular because of the USP that images disappear after a few seconds, is now offering “Memories”, a new way to save snaps and stories. By typing in keywords, it’s super easy to find specific snaps or stories. One can also combine different stories into a longer narrative. It’s fun to celebrate an anniversary or birthday by finding a few old snaps and stringing them together into a new story. If you post a snap you took more than a day ago to your story, it will appear with a frame around it so that everyone knows it’s from the past.

“We don’t remember days, we remember moments.” (Cesare Pavese)