Pictures vs Memories

[cowfishrule]

I was thinking about this today while I was looking at pictures on Facebook:
Are pictures ruining the memories that we have of our past?
Sure, I like to have a nice captured history of my past, but much of the pictures are unneeded and useless. If I didn't have pictures of a certain night, then I probably would never remember it.
Sure, I have an album of pictures I hold dear or from times that I truly don't want to forget. Many of the best times in my life, I didn't have a camera, though, at points, I wish I did.
So, if I can't remember those times without my pictures, are they worth remembering, are the pictures worth keeping?
Would you rather have pictures or memories to retain the good times in your life?
Discuss...

 

[meowzer]

LOL...I'd rather have pictures and memories, but as we get older we seem to forget things, and like you said...where was the camera at a lot of those truly wonderful times in our lives...

 

[ruaround]

both...
what is ESG??? is this the new PIMB???

 

[nordy]

I lost my 16 year old husky mix dog 2 1/2 years ago and, well, it broke my heart even though I fully realized it was coming and I was prepared for that day. Now, that I have gotten over the heartbreak and the emotional memories are pretty much faded, I find that now I have to look at the picture album I made of her life to recall some of the memories of those many happy years, and bring them back out from the shadows of time. I am sad that those memories have faded away, and that my old dog has finally and completly left me not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well.
So, I say to answer your poll question: I want to keep those memories forever and ever, to hang on to that part of me that left when that old gal left me, but I know those memories will diminish and fade away, on into the future, like an asymptotic curve that gets closer and closer and closer to the end point of complete and total forgetfullness.
So, bring on the pictures, never forget, and remember the past, even if you can't really feel it anymore. Pictures will be there even when I am not and put into the record books things that as memories will only fade, fade, away.....
P.S. My new dog, the brown one in my avatar, ismy new baby and is the prettiest dog in the world, in case you didn't know!

 

[renogaw]

pics help bring back the memories. unfortunately, memories are lost in LTM until brought back by a stimulus.

 

[keri]

I need pictures and memories... I forget a lot but the pics help fill in the blanks. I have a period of time in my early 20s that I don't have many pics of and I fell like I've lost a big part of that time.
I find Smells can bring back some pretty vivid memories (try sticking your nose in a box of crayons - you're back in kindergarten again!!)