35% of Brits would have NO record of their memories if it wasn’t for their social media accounts

Social media has become embedded into every aspect of our everyday life. As such, mantras from ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ to ‘throwback Thursday’ have now become ingrained in our society. The meaning of ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ is that if you didn’t take a photo of a particular event or memory and post it on social media, then how do we know it actually happened? With this in mind, PastBook – a leading photo book creation company – now explores a nation who without social media, is unable to recover events or memories, and demonstrates the power photographs have in preserving monumental and minute moments.

Previously, memories were kept private and personal, or not captured at all. Yet the ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ mantra has completely transformed the way we share information, encouraging us to consistently document our lives, uploading and sharing our best memories for our followers to connect with. Despite arguments that this creates pressure to present a perfect life, many now turn to photos as a way to jog their memory, with 55% relying on photos to recall their life and how it has progressed. In fact, 2016 is perhaps best remembered as the year the UK voted to leave the EU, or Donald Trump winning the American presidential election, but it seems Brits struggle to remember much outside of these seismic world events, as without photos, 42% cannot vividly remember 3 life events from 2016.

PastBook’s first-of-its-kind study, conducted from over 2080 respondents, unveils a nation who without documenting their everyday life on social media, are unable to recover an array memories, demonstrating that the ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ culture can provide motivation to record life stories.

Key statistics reveal:

· 42% of Brits cannot vividly remember 3 life events from 2016

· 29% of Brits say all their life events over the last 5-10 years have been captured for their social media accounts and they have no physical record of them

· 35% of Brits would have no record of their favourite photos and memories if it wasn’t for their social media accounts or phone

· Over half (55%) of the nation use photos to recall how their life has progressed

· 20% of the nation cannot recall their favourite memory from 1 year ago

· 27% of Brits cannot vividly recall their most memorable life event from 10 years ago

· 20% of Brits can no longer recall their most memorable moment from the last 5 years

Wouter Staatsen, CEO of PastBook discusses:

“It is no surprise that the ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ mantra has now become a rule which many of us follow when experiencing life events today, as taking our phone out to capture moments has now become second nature to us all. Photographs and social media are powerful mediums as they allow us a way to freeze our memories in time and always remember even the slightest detail of moments with amazing accuracy.

As our memories are dynamic, and even unreliable at times, meaning documenting and preserving them has never been more crucial – it has also never been more accessible through smartphones and social media. PastBook creates a physical capsule of your smartphone photos or social media uploads that can be looked back on in years to come, allowing us a way to recall the moments we would have otherwise forgotten.”