Taking photographs - Test 4

C1 Advanced · Multiple Matching · Cambridge English Advanced 4, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about the effect of taking photographs at events. For questions 47–56, choose from the sections (A–D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

Here's a fun game to play when you're at a live concert: as the musicians begin playing, resist the urge to pull out your phone. While not every audience member defaults to this mode, a sizable portion will. Phones and concerts – in fact, phones and practically all experiences – now go hand in hand. I've been guilty of it – we've all been guilty of it. A picture or video I captured on my phone was something I could carry with me and recall at any moment. I just needed one good shot to prove I'd been there, to serve as a concrete reminder beyond a ticket stub or a T-shirt that I came, I saw, I listened. Music critics and fans alike have published a bevy of articles beseeching fellow audience members to stop using their devices at concerts because at best it's slightly tiresome and at worst it can distract to the point of ruining a show.

There are also compelling psychological reasons not to use your phone at shows. Simply put, using a camera at a concert could mean that you won't remember it very well. A study by Linda Henkel, a US professor of cognitive psychology, examined how taking photos affected people's ability to remember what they were photographing in the first place. Henkel asked participants to walk around a museum and engage some objects with their eyes and others with their cameras. When asked to photograph an entire object, people didn't remember it as well later on. People think, she explained, 'I've captured that.' So instead of spending visual attention on it, they've just clicked and moved on. Participants did remember museum objects better when they were asked to zoom in on one part rather than the entire thing. That has to do with the way the brain pays attention to details but still registers the entirety of what's being observed. But that's not to say you should zoom in on a singer's eyebrows so as to better remember the concert as a whole. Henkel's experiment involved a relatively quiet atmosphere photographing static objects. Concerts offer up a much more physically stimulating situation, which probably changes the outcome.

Beyond memory, does the act of documentation make us enjoy the activity more when we're actually there, in the moment? A recent study has found that people tasked with taking photos during experiences ended up having more fun than when they didn't – but not always. Take, for example, a group of people dancing, with others looking on. 'While taking photos increased the enjoyment of observers, it did not affect the enjoyment of those actively taking part in the experience,' says Kristin Diehl, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Southern California in the US and one of the study's co-authors. In other words, if the activity centres around observing rather than doing, documenting can increase enjoyment levels; though of course stopping in the middle of an activity to take a photo is likely to become burdensome.

When it comes to concerts, it would therefore seem, where we're less engaged, cameras may help us feel a deeper connection, but they aren't really a substitute for 'living in the moment' – that popular rallying cry for those who feel technology has rewired our brains in a way that may not, ultimately, make us happier. So while this is an issue for live music fans, it's also the product of something larger shifting in our increasingly social media-driven culture, in which every new smart-phone comes with a high-resolution camera as standard. Photos and videos may have once been predominantly memory cues, but the way people use them – often in order to cultivate their social media identities – has fundamentally altered. That's why no matter how many musicians set no-phone policies, the habit will continue – and will continue to be debated.

Taking photographs

say that interrupting what one is doing to take photos may feel annoying?

discourage readers from taking some findings too literally?

point out that large numbers of people take photos at concerts?

point out that the pleasure gained from taking photos is restricted to particular situations?

caution that research findings might be different in another environment?

say how irritating to others the use of phones can be?

refer to a view that people are unlikely to be more contented in the future?

explain how taking photos may negatively influence people's ability to recall a concert?

suggest that people are certain to persist in taking photos at concerts?

admit to having done something that they are critical of?

In which section does the writer

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