It’s no lie not being able to remember something is a hindrance. Whether it be social media passwords, things to do, or even your phone lock screen password/pattern. Some people write these passwords down, save them in some file. But one thing people don’t seem to understand is the fact that your own memory isn’t always the most reliable thing you have. Memories can be manipulated and changed if you try hard enough.

One day my brother decided to get himself a PlayStation portable GO (essentially a mini version of a handheld game console) and decided to download a bunch of games he used to play as a kid. He was able to transfer all his old save files so he never really played them over, just simply loaded them up for some nostalgia. One of these games was “Final Fantasy VII.” He decided he wanted to grind all his characters stats to the highest they could go via a very long grinding process. Remembering a process I once saw online but never confirmed, I decided to share it with him. Lo and behold it worked! Now fast forward to literally a week later, we’re talking about the game while I’m playing and he says something along the lines of “Remember the spot I told you about where you can farm stats.” This totally set me off. As we all know I was the one who told him the info but despite it happening a week prior the lad had convinced himself that he knew this info all along and told me about it. The extend of the argument itself was simply us going back and forth claiming who said the info first, but despite even pulling the video of said info he wouldn’t let up. I know this is a very menial thing to argue about but I never really believed how unreliable memories could be until this argument had occurred. I know this isn’t the best example of how memories aren’t always reliable, but this was the first time I ever saw someone trick themselves into believing something. I know it can happen through repetition and other people tricking each other but for some reason this one argument always stuck with me. To this day he still won’t say I told him of the spot in question and I don’t think he ever will.