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‘Digital amnesia’: Taking screenshots could be messing with your memory

Nypost · · 640 words · By Allie Yang
Technology Impact on Memory Cognitive Psychology
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What to know about Technology Impact on Memory

‘Digital amnesia’: Taking screenshots could be messing with your memory See more of our coverage in your search results.

Claims checked 9
Techniques found 1
Topics 2

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center50%
Right50%

2 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

‘Digital amnesia’: Taking screenshots could be messing with your memory See more of our coverage in your search results.

Why it matters

Add The New York Post on Google Are you guilty of filling up your phone with photos or screenshots of information you hope to call on later — only to never look at it again?

Common ground

We certainly intend to go back to try that recipe, or try to find that product at the store.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/08/22/health/taking-screenshots-could-be-messing-with-yo…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 70% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 9 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

verified Verified By Reference 3
check_circle Corroborated 3
cancel Disputed 1
help Insufficient Evidence 1
verified Verified 1
verified
Claim 1: “Authors from the study, titled “Digital amnesia: The aftermath of a screenshot,” break down why this might be happening”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The specific study title 'Digital amnesia: The aftermath of a screenshot' is found in the 'Memory & Cognition' journal reference, which discusses the photo-taking impairment effect.
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web search NEUTRAL — A 2014 study found that taking photos of objects in a museum impaired people’s ability to remember details about those objects compared to simply viewing them. This phenomenon is known as the photo-ta…
https://www.psypost.org/psychologists-find-smartphone-screen…
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web search NEUTRAL — Known as the photo-taking impairment effect, the phenomenon occurs for material that the picture-taker doesn't review afterward. According to other research, using photographs to retrieve and review m…
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-screenshots.html
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web search NEUTRAL — The photo-taking impairment effect is the finding that memory is worse for photographed information compared with information that is merely viewed.Memory & Cognition Aims and scope. Submit manuscript…
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-026-01921-2
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Claim 2: “About 90% of Americans use a smartphone”
DISPUTED
The claim states 'About 90% of Americans use a smartphone', but the NEWZOO report provided in the evidence states smartphone penetration in the USA is 77% of its entire population, which is significantly lower than 90%.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States Army (U.S. Army) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is designated as the army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As a part of the …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 3: “taking a screenshot made people less likely to remember that they had screenshotted the image in the first place.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to support or refute the claim that screenshotting makes people forget the act of screenshotting itself.
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Claim 4: “the act of taking the photos actually does the opposite: It makes us more likely to forget, Binghamton University researchers found.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources (GIGAZINE, ScienceAlert, and another cognitive research report) confirm that Binghamton University researchers found that taking photos can hinder memory formation.
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web search NEUTRAL — However, many people rarely look back at the photos they take, and previous research has shown that taking photos actually hinders memory formation. This phenomenon, known as the 'photo-taking impairm…
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260824-photos-screenshot-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Taking a photo or screenshot to help remember something may actually make it harder to recall later, according to cognitive research from Binghamton University.
https://med.news.am/eng/news/41715/taking-screenshots-may-ma…
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web search NEUTRAL — One of the main reasons people take photos is to help us remember an experience or event.To investigate these ideas, the Binghamton team tested 892 participants across seven experiments, teasing out d…
https://www.sciencealert.com/science-weighs-in-on-whether-al…
verified
Claim 5: “Previous research shows that we take about 20 photos a day and keep about 2,000 photos on our devices.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of unrelated search results (AI engines, stem cell research, Unix history) and contains no data regarding the number of photos taken per day or stored on devices.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, charact…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Research Unix refers to the early versions of the Unix operating system for DEC PDP-7, PDP-11, VAX, and Interdata 7/32 and 8/32 computers, developed in the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Unix
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sinclair Research Ltd was a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge in the 1970s. In 1980, the company entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95 (equ…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “Researchers found participants didn’t remember the screenshotted images as well as the ones they simply viewed.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources discussing the Binghamton University research and the 'photo-taking impairment effect' confirm that participants remembered viewed images better than those they photographed/screenshotted.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2025–26 Binghamton Bearcats women's basketball team represented Binghamton University during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Bearcats, led by second-year head coach Mary…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–26_Binghamton_Bearcats_wo…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Binghamton High School, a combined high school of the previous Binghamton North High School and Binghamton Central High School, is a large public high school located in the center of Binghamton, New …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_High_School
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jessica Fridrich is a professor at Binghamton University, who specializes in data hiding applications in digital imagery. She is also known for documenting and popularizing the CFOP method (also known…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Fridrich
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 7: “In this study, students were shown images of art... and were instructed to screenshot some of them. Later, they were asked to choose from 3 choices which piece of art they saw originally.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The 'Memory & Cognition' reference for the 'Digital amnesia' study explicitly describes the procedure where participants were instructed to view or screenshot pieces of art.
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web search NEUTRAL — QR code scanner online. It helps you scan QR from an image, picture, screenshot, or webcam. Use on mobile and desktop online without any app.
https://scanqr.org/
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web search NEUTRAL — The study and test procedures were the same as in Experiment 1, with the following exceptions. The instruction to view or screenshot the pieces of art was alternated between subjects, with each partic…
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-026-01921-2
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web search NEUTRAL — You're Studying at an Oxford Library at Night | Dark Academia Playlist. Hexen and 2 more.A Week as a Student at Oxford. Victoria. 56K 2mo ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3p9FWV0mao
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Claim 8: “They call it “photo-taking impairment effect” and it happens when the person who took the picture remembers less than a person who simply views it and moves on.”
CORROBORATED
The 'photo-taking impairment effect' is explicitly named and described across multiple sources (Orbit Clinics, ScienceAlert) as a phenomenon where photographing objects leads to poorer memory compared to simple observation.
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web search NEUTRAL — Participants who photographed museum artifacts remembered less about the objects compared to those who only observed them. However, Henkel also found that zooming in on details while photographing cou…
https://www.orbitclinics.com/the-photo-taking-impairment-eff…
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web search NEUTRAL — The idea that taking photos reduces our ability to remember is not new – the effect has shown up in research for decades. But exactly why the so-called 'photo-taking impairment effect' occurs remains …
https://www.sciencealert.com/science-weighs-in-on-whether-al…
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web search NEUTRAL — Perhaps taking multiple photos lessens the memory impairment — or, alternatively, perhaps it encourages us to feel even less responsibility for remembering what we're looking at, making our memory of …
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/our-memory-worse-thin…
verified
Claim 9: “Previous research showed that those struggling with memory loss who went through photos of their day were better able to recall details later.”
VERIFIED
A PDF source specifically investigates 'photographic review' as a technique to enhance memory recall for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), supporting the claim that reviewing photos helps those with memory loss.
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web search NEUTRAL — This article investigates the photographic review as a potential technique to enhance memory recall for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
https://www.academia.edu/21524880/Facilitation_of_Memory_for…
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web search NEUTRAL — 174K views 5 years ago #Stress #Memory #MedCircle. Unlock access to MedCircle’s workshops & series, plus connect with others who are taking charge of their mental wellness journeys through your MedCir…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xejMcYP5Zw4
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web search NEUTRAL — Actress Marilu Henner has a highly superior autobiographical memory, a rare condition identified in only 100 people worldwide. This trait drives her to advocate for more funding for brain research.
https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/actress-marilu-henner-…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.