Colin Milner 

Founder/CEO at International Council on Active Aging

We celebrate beginnings; births, graduations, weddings. We mark milestones with balloons, speeches, tears. If we’re lucky, these celebrations form the narrative of our lives, becoming enduring memories stitched together into something resembling a movie reel.

But, have you ever asked yourself what a memory is worth?

Many of you will know the saying (or some variation thereof), “When you’re on your deathbed, all you have is your memories.” Not your bank balance. Not your possessions. Just a gallery of mental snapshots of the people you’ve loved, the struggles you’ve endured, and the joys you didn’t see coming. When we think about them in that light, memories become priceless. Maybe they become everything.

When I was a child, capturing a moment was special. My dad had a Polaroid camera. He’d click the boxy camera, then pull out and shake the photo until the image appeared, freezing the moment in time.

Photography was deliberate then. You had 24 exposures, 36 if you were lucky, and the cost of each mistake came later at the drugstore counter or photo lab. You didn’t take photos of your lunch. You saved film for birthdays, vacations, and special moments like your child’s graduation.

Things couldn’t be more different today. Globally, a vast majority of us carry a camera every day via our smartphones. This democratization of photography gives us all the ability to be documentarians and diarists, citizen reporters, and family archivists.

Recent research by Max Spielmann, a British photo printing chain with 400+ locations, found that more than 90% of all photos today are taken on smartphones, a trend the company says is driven by social media. Estimates vary for how many pictures an average smartphone user takes per day, with 2–6 photos a safe guess. One analysis by Phototutorial suggests huge regional differences, averaging fewer than 5 photos daily in Europe and as many as 20 daily in the United States.

More is not always better.

Limitless storage can create a kind of forgetting. We capture more but experience less. Photos can disappear into digital folders, and memories become simply data—filed, not felt.

Yet, we retain our instinct to preserve, to remember and to share. In senior living communities, in wellness centers, or in family homes where time feels more precious, this instinct can become a resource. Memory can become a personal gift and a social currency. Reminiscing can lower stress, strengthen identity, and foster connection between people. Sharing a photo isn’t just a gesture; it’s a thread back to something meaningful.

That’s why programming around memory-making and storytelling can be so powerful: It’s an invitation to reflect, to connect and to create. Photo books, memory walls, digital storytelling projects can become “scaffolding” to support well-being, transforming folders full of forgotten photos into opportunities for engagement, reflection and even healing.

Further, a thoughtful approach to photography can engage individuals in a multidimensional and meaningful wellness experience today that then becomes a gift to well-being tomorrow.

In a recent issue of Journal on Active Aging®, Australian researcher Tricia King, PhD, shares her findings and observations about the benefits of photography. King’s article, “The surprising power of photography in aging well,” mentions a programming approach she uses: group photo walks followed by group discussion of participants’ images. Photography is both fun and personal, she says. A camera can help individuals discover the world around them through their own unique lens, while discussing their photographs as a group helps them connect socially.

Given the thousands of digital images that smartphone users have today, and how many they add to their digital camera roll every day, perhaps one tip to take away from Dr. King’s program is the value of reflecting on our pictures. Is it a moment or experience that we really want to preserve, remember and share? Because we’re not just recording endless clicks in folders or albums today; we’re each writing the story of our lives through priceless memories.

Colin Milner, CEO

International Council on Active Aging®

Original article shared via LinkedIn