Featured Image Credit: Richard Drury via Getty
Having a photographic memory is both a blessing and a curse, as while it can make parts of your life a whole lot easier, it's also impossible to escape any embarrassing moments you'd rather forget.
By definition, a photographic memory is when the human brain is able to recall moments, situations, or even entire days with great accuracy, as if you were looking directly at a photo or video footage in real time.
It's extremely useful in school, for example, as you're able to perfectly memorize information in a way that others would find incredibly challenging, and in general it means that you're never lacking when you want to recall something from the past.
Its strength within the human brain can vary between cases of photographic memory, but one Reddit user who claims to be able to recall and play entire hours of 'footage' in their head from all throughout their life appears to be on the stronger end of the scale.
Advert
As with any fascinating individual on Reddit, u/Lumpy-Violinist762 posted about their condition on the r/AMA (or 'Ask Me Anything') subreddit, opening up to a wide variety of questions from the wider internet community.
Immediately one of the most fascinating queries involved their first ever memory, or whether they remembered being a baby. In response, they revealed that their "first memory is my 2nd birthday," and that they remember "everything from about 12 o'clock onward, any detail you could ask."
Due to the sheer number of comments in the thread they didn't quite get around to providing a short summary of the day, but it's fascinating that both the early years of their life weren't 'captured', and that they can clearly recall as early as their second birthday party.
Another popular question was whether they were able to 'turn off' the skill, and potentially repress any memories that they wouldn't necessarily want to recall.
"I can choose what to remember it doesn't just come upon me," u/Lumpy-Violinist762 explained. "I'm lucky to not have had any traumatic experiences in my lifetime that I would not want to relive. So yes I can suppress memories by just choosing not to recall but they will always be there if I wish to remember."
Sometimes you don't necessarily need a photographic memory in order to recall exactly how you felt when you fell into mud 15 years ago, or the embarrassment of calling your teacher mom, those things stick with you for life.
Another commenter asks whether school was easy for them due to their skill, and they illustrate that while it was "extremely easy," it ended up being "extremely disruptive as I knew I could finish an academic year's worth of studying in an hour."
Another difficulty came from the fact that remembering is different to understanding, as they outlined that they "could just remember the examples in the textbook and put any equations through the same process really."
It does largely seem to have its benefits across life, and they repeatedly indicate that it's not something that they use to get a leg up over other people, but it must truly be fascinating to be able to recall any specific moment in your life from the age of two onwards with near perfect-precision.
Studies have shown that our overuse of technology has potentially led to a degraded memory, but even with extended screen breaks it'd be unlikely that anyone would be able to achieve anything close to what this particular person can.
