We asked 135 college students in the Boston area…

We asked 135 college students in the Boston area to create time capsules at the end of the school year, filled with evidence of their recent lives-the last social event they attended, three songs they re-cently listened to, an excerpt from a final paper for a class, an inside joke. Right after they had created their time capsules, we asked these students how interested and curious they thought they would be about their contents when they viewed them again, in three months. They were not enthused: they described the items as mundane, borderline garbage, all too familiar. Why would it be interesting to encounter them again? But after the three months had passed, their perspective had sig-nificantly changed. Our participants reported that they were now ex cited to see the contents of their time capsules-and they later told us how delighted they were when they got to see them again. Despite feeling that they would remember the contents all too well, they had forgotten much of what they had stored away, and rediscovering those contents produced outright joy.

— from Time

Also belongs to

Related