Binghamton University found that screenshotting something makes you more likely to forget it. That screenshot you took so you wouldn’t forget? It’s somewhere in your gallery. You probably already forgot it exists. Researchers call it the digital capture effect. They ran 7 experiments. People looked at pieces of art. Some just viewed them. Some took screenshots. Then everyone was tested. In every one of the 7 experiments, memory was worse for the screenshotted images. The researchers looked for a payoff. If your phone holds the memory, your brain should be free for something else. They didn’t find a consistent one. No better memory for what came next. No better performance on a mental task afterward. And people were worse at remembering which images they had screenshotted at all. They lost track of what they’d saved. It gets stranger. Earlier studies found the same memory loss when people deleted their photos right away. No saved copy. Memory still suffered. So it’s not just that your brain trusts the phone. Researchers think it’s what pressing the button does to your attention. Then in August 2026, a study in American Psychologist went further. When one person takes photos, the companion standing next to them remembers less too. About as much as if they’d taken the photos themselves. They never touched the camera. But there’s a way out. In a 2014 museum study, people who photographed whole objects remembered fewer details. When they zoomed in on one specific detail, the memory loss disappeared. Same camera. Different attention. And photos can help memory when you go back and look at them. Saving something and remembering something are not the same thing. Your phone keeps the picture. You have to keep the memory.