Digital memory prompts—being told "You have a new memory!" by a device or app—are now a normal part of our lives

The feature was introduced to iPhones on the iOS 11 update in 2017 , drawing inspiration from Facebook’s “On This Day ” feature.

Now, memory prompts are a central part of many apps, from Instagram and Snapchat to a streaming app like Spotify .

But these prompts don’t always get it right, and they might be making our lives more difficult.

Since its inception, social media has thrived on context-free nostalgia.

Some of the earliest trends on Instagram were “ Throwback Thursday ” and “ Flashback Friday ” These flashbacks strip images of vital context.

In a world where we’re constantly encouraged to compare ourselves to (and compete with) other people, only posting the good parts of our lives can contribute to low self-esteem in others.

When replicated at a larger scale, this can lead to false memories.

It might seem like having more memories available to us on digital devices is giving us more choice.

Not knowing when these memory prompts are going to appear in front of us can hamper our ability to forget.

And they're also a barrier to remembering things properly, in our own way.