[music]

Manoush Zomorodi: Nassau and Paradise Island is home to the world's clearest, turquoise waters and white sand beaches, where couples find secluded escapes, savor local flavors, and unwind to rhythms of Bahamian nights. All this and more is just a short flight away. This holiday season, plan your escape at nassauparadiseisland.com.

Hello, friend. This is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Tech City. Same good content, just the old name. Enjoy.

[music]

Manoush Zomorodi: From WNYC, this is New Tech City, where digital gets personal. I'm Manoush Zomorodi. Welcome back to the Bored and Brilliant project. This is day two of Challenge Week. We are putting ourselves and our smartphone habits to the test, trying to see what might free up some brain space for bigger thinking. Can I just say congratulations, by the way? Yesterday, you tried keeping your phone in your pocket or your bag as you went throughout your day. It was your first crack at spacing out more.

Was it hard? I felt myself itching to look at my phone as I walked to the subway, but by the time I made it to my desk, I realized how much less frantic I felt than I usually do. I think this is going to get easier as the week goes on and as we move from giving things up to flexing our creativity muscles. Challenge number two. See the world through your eyes, not your screen. You can use your phone as usual today, except for one thing, don't take any photos. None. Think it sounds easy?

Speaker 2: I think I would feel rather lonely, either not taking or receiving a photo for a day.

Speaker 3: My memory is short, so I use my phone as a memory aid, meaning I take pictures of things that I need to do later in the day, my parking spot, where I've left important things.

Speaker 4: If I'd stopped using it, I would have far fewer pictures of my dogs.

Manoush Zomorodi: If a day is lived in the digital age without a photo, did it really happen? I'm going to say yes. What do photos actually do for us? Do they help us remember? I mean, we sure are taking a lot of them. A recent Shutterfly study found Americans take more than 10 billion photos every month. Nearly 60% of those photo takers say that they use their phone, not a separate camera. Greg Colon can definitely vouch for that trend.

Greg Colon: That's one thing that's really changed a lot. It used to be just cameras.

Manoush Zomorodi: Greg is a guard at the Guggenheim Art Museum in Manhattan. There's a no-photo policy there that pretty much nobody obeys.

Greg Colon: They'll say, "I was checking," but it's very easy to spot their body language. You can tell when they're taking photos. Even from behind, it's very easy to spot. I just tell them, if it looks like you're taking a photo, I'm going to have to tell you not to take photos, so please don't-

Manoush Zomorodi: Don't put you in that position.

Greg Colon: -make it look like you're taking a photo.

Manoush Zomorodi: Yes.

Greg Colon: Yes.

Manoush Zomorodi: Well, that's nice of you. You keep it civil. By the way, Greg, for 15 years, he has been pacing the galleries, keeping an eye on museum visitors, watching human nature.

Greg Colon: They're not even looking at the painting a lot of times. They're scrolling. They're just scrolling away, looking at their phones.

Manoush Zomorodi: Greg truly is bored and brilliant. This is a man who knows how to make standing in a sometimes empty room for eight hours a day a wonderful thing. We've made a video about his inner life as a museum guard. You can see it at newtechcity.org/bored. It's beautiful. Back to the big question, is there any downside to taking photos other than just breaking museum policy? Well, yes. A study done at a different museum specifically looked at whether taking a photo of something impacts your experience of it.

Professor Linda Henkel: Yes. It's a very interesting project because cameras, as amazing as they are, they really can't compare to what the human brain is capable of with input from the eyes and the ears.

Manoush Zomorodi: That's Professor Linda Henkel of Fairfield University in Connecticut. She took 74 people on a tour of an art museum. Some were told to take photos, some told not to. Those who took a photo remembered less about the art than those who just looked.

Professor Linda Henkel: I called the basic finding a photo-taking impairment effect. Just trying to capture this idea that if we take photos of things, you're basically saying, "Okay, I don't need to think about this," and so you don't engage in any of the elaborative or emotional or thinking about other things, the kinds of processing that really would help you remember those experiences because you've outsourced it to your camera now.

Manoush Zomorodi: The photo-taking impairment effect, basically, if your camera captures the moment, then your brain doesn't capture it as well. Today, no-photo day. Take absolutely no pictures today, not of your lunch, not your children, not the beautiful sunset. Instagrammers, it's going to get rocky. You're going to be okay. Snapchat Stars, hang in there. The rest of you, like my mom, who takes one picture a month, don't be smug. Your tough day is coming.

If you're using Moment or our Android app, BreakFree, keep it going. We are monitoring the data and seeing what works and doesn't work this week, and we're going to report the results on our final episode. In the meantime, you can see the daily stats of the Bored and Brilliant bunch and compare your numbers to the rest of us and to me. If you find a good strategy for adjusting your phone habits, be a bit healthier, share it with us at newtechcity.org/bored.

Till challenge number three, I'm Manoush Zomorodi, and this is New Tech City's Bored and Brilliant project. You are doing great, by the way.

[music]

Greg Colon: They're scrolling, scrolling, and sometimes I'd like to create a T-shirt, maybe, that says, "Go ahead, scroll your life away." A T-shirt that says that.

Manoush Zomorodi: That's rough.

Greg Colon: [laughs] Yes.

Speaker 7: NYC Now delivers breaking news, top headlines, and in-depth coverage from WNYC and Gothamist every morning, midday, and evening. By sponsoring our programming, you'll reach a community of passionate listeners and an uncluttered audio experience. Visit sponsorship.wnyc.org to learn more.

Copyright © 2026 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.