{"id":124,"date":"2012-07-11T15:28:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T14:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/?p=124"},"modified":"2018-01-25T10:40:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T10:40:17","slug":"124","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/2012\/07\/11\/124\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do people keep photos?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A quick analysis of the four pieces I had found on the net to do with &#8216;Why do people keep photos'[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Why-do-people-keep-photos-v1.1-13Jul2012.docx\">Why-do-people-keep-photos-v1.1-13Jul2012<\/a>] seems to indicate the following:<\/p>\n<p>The main reasons that people keep photos is a) as a reminder of the past, and b) to share their experiences with others. There are many aspects to the first reason including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To experience a moment again and the feelings you had at that moment.<\/li>\n<li>To remind you of someone you really liked \u2013 or perhaps hated.<\/li>\n<li>To escape from the present to the past because it is somehow more enjoyable than the present.<\/li>\n<li>To augment a vague memory and see how it really was.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People also keep other artefacts such as theatre tickets and programmes, but a photo provides a richer memory experience. The saying \u2018A picture is worth a thousand words\u2019 is appropriate for a variety of reasons including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Photos tell us about the person photographed, and how they looked, what they did and liked or disliked, and maybe even how they were feeling or what they were thinking.<\/li>\n<li>Photos tell us about history, trends and how things have changed or stayed the same.<\/li>\n<li>Photos also tell us about the interests , preferences and lives of the people taking the photos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Photos also have a special value over and above keepsakes or even paintings \u2013 they are \u2018factive\u2019. That is, we know that, provided things are working properly and have been done right, what\u2019s in a photo actually existed or occurred. Of course, most people are aware that photos can give a false impression or can be doctored, but under normal circumstances photos show things the way they were.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping photos is not normally classified as Hoarding \u2013 though a couple of the characteristics of hoarders might apply \u2013 no confidence in one\u2019s memory and a fear of forgetting important memories. So, it is likely that someone with hoarding tendencies would probably want to keep photos \u2013 but just because someone keeps photos doesn\u2019t make them a hoarder.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, I found little mention of specific family reasons for keeping photos \u2013 either to see what one\u2019s ancestors were like or to pass photos down to future generations. There was mention that photos tell us about our history and can serve as a linkage of one generation to another but no discussion of why those things are important. My guess is that it is just a natural human trait to be interested in where you came from and what your ancestors were like; and that any desire to hand photos down to the next generation simply reflects the value that individuals place on having such information about their ancestors themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A quick analysis of the four pieces I had found on the net to do with &#8216;Why do people keep photos'[Why-do-people-keep-photos-v1.1-13Jul2012] seems to indicate the following: The main reasons that people keep photos is a) as a reminder of the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/2012\/07\/11\/124\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organising-family-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1353,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwofc.com\/ofc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}