Could Screenshots Change Your Life for the Better?

Go to the photos saved on your phone and look at the most recent screenshots you’ve captured.

What are they?

From our earliest moments, humans were captivated by capturing moments of their lives, documenting them.

As soon as one great thing happened, Cerutti taking down a giant mastodon for the tribe with only a rock (this is an imaginary example, work with me here), I’m sure there was a desire to recount the story.

From myths to cave paintings, sculpture to photographs, we have, in one medium or another, found our way throughout time to make sure that every noteworthy (and also totally superfluous) moment is recorded in our collective permanent record.

For each one of us spending more and more time on our digital devices, this has meant that much of this documentation happens in the form of screenshots. Photos of the people, places, things…and designs, ideas, and conversations…taking place on our screens also ends up filling up our memory cards and paying for extra space on our Google Drives.

What is it that we are capturing?

I’ve been distracted by this question lately and trying to find answers.

When I asked the question, “How do you use screenshots on your phone?” recently to my connections on Facebook and Twitter, I received several unenthusiastic responses.

But this lack of excitement didn’t deter me much. Because anytime we choose to spend our time doing something over and over, there is an important behavior taking place. What is this need to screenshot? And how can we use it to our advantage?

There’s a lot of interest in the ethics of the screenshot

A quick Google search on the topic of screenshots pulled up a ton of posts discussing the ethics and legality of screenshots. Maybe because of all the celebrity news around unflattering (and potentially illegal) private conversations shared courtesy of the screenshot, it seems more people are focused on how the screenshots might be used against them than on how they use them for themselves.

But the storage on my phone continues to fill, even when saving by default to the cloud, with the seemingly endless numbers of photos and screenshots I take. I even have folders on my desktop and laptop called “SCREENSHOTS” full of …well, screenshots. It turns out I have an almost obsessive compulsion to create screenshots on a daily basis.

What kind of screenshots do we take?

I capture great questions people ask on Twitter. I screenshot ideas from websites to share with friends.

I screenshot marketing copy that makes me want to buy things because I’m fascinated by the psychological journey my brain takes as I go through the sales journey. (This pause for analysis also helps break the “buy” spell 90% of the time because I move from buyer-brain to seller-brain.)

Similar to this, I screenshot the marketing SMS messages I receive that have a great conversational tone that doesn’t make me feel like ripping my hair out (like 90% of marketing SMS messages).

I take screenshots of social media exchanges that I can’t believe I’m seeing. The great and the terrible.

Screenshots can also have a “notes” functionality for future exploration. For example, I screenshot interesting bits of information that I want to remember to dig deeper into later while reading an article.

Like on Saturday I was reading an article and it briefly touched on the “South Atlantic Anomaly” which is a fascinating and potentially terrifying topic. I must know MORE.

I screenshot happy things that I know will make me smile when I need to remember that there exists good in the world. A recent example was a post of ABC 7’s Leslie Lopez who was doing traffic reporting from home and was interrupted by her toddler son who had just learned to walk. Heartwarming.

I also took a screenshot of a gorgeous poem that a person I don’t know shared on social media. It begins, “When I die give what’s left of me away to children and old men that wait to die.”

Stunning.

This may be a “me” thing.

It might be that I am an outlier in my screenshot hoarding. Maybe most of you don’t take the enormous number of screenshots that I do and that is probably a very healthy, Marie-Kondo-approved way of managing your life.

But if you do…

If you, too, tend to capture so many screenshots that you create special folders for them…

Then I wonder if you have also figured out a way to make the best use of these resources. What would it mean if we purposefully captured these moments on the screen and then took the time to reflect upon or process the screenshots once we’d taken them?

Because truth be told, I don’t always do that. In fact, I mostly don’t do that.

My screenshots are similar to the “RESOURCES” folder that holds all the free downloaded PDFs that promise me great knowledge and yet remain stored in pristine, untouched condition nestled with many friends in its well-populated folder living in the great expanse of the cloud.

What would happen if we approached our screenshots with intention?

Could screenshot hoarding be turned into a more purposeful practice? Is there a better approach? Could a person change their life for the better by simply becoming more aware and structured in the way they use the ubiquitous screenshot?

Maybe. Probably. It could be a good experiment.

How do you use screenshots and do you benefit from them? Do you have a habit that benefits from the use of screenshots? Please email me at kiki@amplifiedgrowth.net or comment below to share your experience.