Recently, while reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, a point she made about reminiscing weighed heavily on my mind for many days after.

My family has done a great job over the years of preserving familial keepsakes. During family visits, we often reminisce together, sharing old stories—some that not all of us knew, and others that simply evoke warmth and happiness. In the past, storing these memories required physical artifacts, as we didn’t have social media like Facebook, Instagram, or, for some, TikTok, to rely on for flashback memories. There were no digital artifacts. In a way, I’m grateful that some of my younger, and often embarrassing, years weren’t captured on video.

Too much social media can also be harmful to mental health. For example, I might be scrolling along, see someone’s cute baby, and then—wham!—I’m confronted with animal cruelty, war, destruction, or general doom. While it’s important to stay informed about the world around us, is it necessary to be blindsided by all that ails our world? Social media can be great when used in moderation and for surface-level communication, but it certainly doesn’t replace real connections, like talking on the phone or hugging a family member or friend—something many of us realized during the pandemic.

There are scientific studies that show reminiscing can promote a sense of well-being and reduce stress. I still have birthday cards from friends, parents, and grandparents (who have since passed). I’ve kept the last voicemail from my grandfather, wishing me a happy birthday before he passed, and one from my nephew, sent while I was on my first solo transcontinental trip. These mean something to me—it really is the thought that counts. It’s also a reminder that I should call more people on their birthdays.

This morning, I ordered some decorative boxes that look like old books to store keepsakes on my bookshelf. I’ve also decided to start using the old cameras I inherited from my grandfather. As the saying goes, “the teacher appears when the student is ready”—and just the other day, while walking with a friend, I happened to pass a camera store with all sorts of film options for vintage film. Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t rely so heavily on social media for memories. Plus, storing them in secret book-like boxes on the shelf adds a whole new kind of time capsule.

I’m curious—how do you store your memories? Are they kept physically, or do you rely more on social media and the cloud for photos and videos?