For me, I wouldn’t equate my ability to visualize things in my head to sight, but maybe hearing or smell. Could I interact with the world without it? Absolutely. But I do a ton with that ability.
I hold lists, draw maps, plan routes, visualize models, check the contents of my fridge while at the grocery store.
It also helps me make connections between disperate pieces of data.
A lot of this I could do with a pencil and paper, but it’s so much faster to pull it up in my head.
I was always told of photographic memory being some super power and thought “Hey, would be neat if I had THAT!”
Was that just the ability to daydream all the time? I imagined people with like literal cameras for brains that could take a picture of a book page and read it later like a text document.
This whole time, I might have had that mystical power all along and aphantasia people just overstated how accurate it was?
That’s a good question. I don’t think I’ve met anyone in person who claimed to have a photographic memory. I definitely don’t do the “recalling long strings of numbers” thing that TV shows imply. But I can pull up a fairly accurate picture of the inside of my fridge and take inventory.
For me, I wouldn’t equate my ability to visualize things in my head to sight, but maybe hearing or smell. Could I interact with the world without it? Absolutely. But I do a ton with that ability. I hold lists, draw maps, plan routes, visualize models, check the contents of my fridge while at the grocery store. It also helps me make connections between disperate pieces of data. A lot of this I could do with a pencil and paper, but it’s so much faster to pull it up in my head.
Wait… the way you describe it now…
I was always told of photographic memory being some super power and thought “Hey, would be neat if I had THAT!”
Was that just the ability to daydream all the time? I imagined people with like literal cameras for brains that could take a picture of a book page and read it later like a text document.
This whole time, I might have had that mystical power all along and aphantasia people just overstated how accurate it was?
That’s a good question. I don’t think I’ve met anyone in person who claimed to have a photographic memory. I definitely don’t do the “recalling long strings of numbers” thing that TV shows imply. But I can pull up a fairly accurate picture of the inside of my fridge and take inventory.