Almost everyone takes screenshots, whether they're on their desktop, smartphone, or tablet. According to a small 2020 survey of university students and employees, 97% of people regularly take screenshots. They include pictures, web pages, text documents, and programming code.
Still, some people do it the old-school way: by taking a picture of their device screen. 52% of the respondents said they use the "screenshot" function on their device, and only 6% ever take photos of their entire screen. However, 42% said they do both, depending on the situation. So, it's not just your tech-inept uncle who always takes photos of his laptop screen – other folks find it quicker and more effective, too.
Screenshots are a good way to provide proof of something. In celebrity cancel culture, screenshots are often used as "receipts" to prove (or disprove) transgressions. Netizens take screengrabs of celebrities' old social media posts, DMs, and old interview snippets to bring to light the problematic things they have said and done in the past.
However, it has become increasingly hard to prove that such screenshots are authentic. For example, in June 2022, a supposed The Guardian headline started making the rounds on social media. A screengrab of the article read: "The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial was the female [Genocide of European Jews]." The authenticity of the screenshot was soon disproved as Reuters called it fake. The headline of the real article was "The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial was [a spectacle] of misogyny."
We often take screenshots as incriminating evidence. As behavioral analyst Dr. Mozelle Martin explains in one of her articles on Medium, it's how our brains are wired to work. We trust visual information more than written summaries. For example, when Jonah Hill's girlfriend Sarah Brady shared their conversations in 2023, accusing him of bullying and controlling behavior, if she had written an essay or put her story into words on her Instagram Stories, people might have had a harder time believing her.
"Screenshots are one of the most effective tools for manufacturing consensus," Dr. Martin writes. "A partial exchange is shared. Silence from the accused is interpreted as guilt. Context never enters the frame. Repetition does the rest. Over time, the screenshot stops being questioned. It becomes lore." Things like the date and time in the upper corner of the screenshot don't mean that it is not fake, either – they only reflect local settings.
According to Martin, online audiences rarely scrutinize "screenshot evidence" like investigators do. Screenshots shouldn't be treated as the final evidence, and professional investigators usually do a better job of evaluating digital communication than online audiences. Martin shares the elements of a proper analysis:
- Real "evidence" should be a full conversation thread, not just fragments of conversations.
- The timeline should be clear: messages need to have verified timestamps.
- The context of the relationship between those having the conversation matters, and so do the power dynamics.
- What's the motive of the person sharing the screenshots? Did they disclose it? Do they expect people to draw their own conclusions or do they present an accusation already?
- If available, corroborate with independent data.
