The photo on your phone’s home screen, lock screen, or wallpaper—why did you choose it? Why do you keep it there? At this moment, I have 8,452 photos (yes, I do) on my iPhone, and yet of all these photos, the one that inhabits my home screen—the first thing I see when I pick up my phone—is a photo I took more than three years ago of the Washoe Valley in western Nevada on a perfect late July evening. During the summer of 2015, my husband and I took a road trip to the West Coast, and we spent one night in a tiny cabin that looked out over the valley. I distinctly remember the moment I took the photo; we were walking along a rutted road on a peaceful evening, and I was content and happy.
Since then, I’ve used my phone’s camera to capture numerous family events, trips near and far, and all kinds of memory-making moments. Yet of all my photos, the one overlooking the Washoe Valley is the one I choose to keep on my home screen. Sometimes I think about changing it, but something tells me not to. I’d miss it, even though I probably don’t even notice it half the time I pick up my phone. I recently read that we pick up our phones an average of 47 to 86 times a day. So, if I am an average user (and I hope I’m not!), I may have looked at my photo 55,789 times since that day in late July 2015.
We were curious and asked around: What photo is on your phone’s home screen? Why did you choose that particular one? How long has it been there? How many photos do you have on your phone? The replies we heard were funny, touching, and insightful stories. Here is part of our collection (with a few links that we have added).
“This is my home screen. Picture taken with my iPhone. No filters or enhancement. 16,578 pictures. Yes, far too many of my dog and two cats. The photo was taken several falls ago in St Paul, MN. Along the Mississippi River parkway about 1/2 mile north of the Ford Dam.” —Barb
“2453 photos on my phone and whenever I want to take some, I have to delete some! Home screen = my five kids at the airport on the occasion of my son’s first deployment to Afghanistan many years ago. I just can’t bear to change it as it seems he is constantly leaving, and when I see him, uniformed, surrounded by his siblings, it gives me a sense of peace that he and all our kids will be ok.” —Michelle
“This is my lock screen. It’s an artistic wrap that my friend was commissioned to make for some of the transformer boxes around St Paul. It’s a sort of collage with various found items: colored pencils, pom poms, a penny, and so many other items that I don’t remember. Then she resized everything to make the collage work.” —Danielle
[Original image courtesy of Becka Rahn, www.beckarahn.com.]
“California poppies from a walk in my neighborhood!” —Patty
“I use a shot from our trip to Santa Barbara last year – a nice memory of sunny SoCal.” —Raia
“My home screen photo changes based on what the operating system provides. Among them I’ve seen flowers, and a parakeet and other default photos. Am I boring?” —Bill
“This has been my home and lock screen for 1.5 years. Took it on vacation. I typically match my phone home screen to my desktop wallpaper as well. Doing so means that photo is often seen by others when doing work presentations (often) so I keep that in mind. Other selection rules: 1. No people. 2. I have taken myself. 3. Makes me happy. 4. Motivating. Currently have 16K photos 😬” —Nicole
“This was my home screen for a year, until I upgraded phones. My friend Al was traveling the world scuba diving. His goal was to see all the coral reefs before they’re gone. He knows I have a particular fondness for Humpback whales and shared the picture with me. I keep my pictures in the cloud, not on my phone, because I like to be able to
access them from all my electronic devices.” —Peteria
“Bonaire 2017 dive. If more people see the sublime beauty of nature, then hopefully more people will fight protect nature.” —Al
“1832 photos. Home screen of my husband and me in Duluth five years ago. Nothing special about it… I guess I’ve been too lazy to change it to something else.” —Renee
“My two kids, in their pajamas, looking happy together. Probably not anything too unusual or exciting. I keep about 500-1000 photos on my phone at any one time. It’s a constant challenge to keep these numbers down. I’m constantly shuffling them to my home computer to be properly backed up and to post some of them to my blog. I also move dSLR photos in the other direction, from my computer to my phone, in order to review them on an alternate screen or to post them on Instagram. There are around 40-50 photos that stay on my phone all the time. These are mostly shots of the kids growing up or of a page of a book with a quote I like or of the Christmas light setup so I can reference it the next year. It’s all pretty random and sometimes useful!” —Jeff, Moon Lake Multimedia
“597 photos, 11 videos. Default home screen, very boring.” —Mary
“It’s been my home screen since 2012. I took it while we were vacationing on Kauai. I can clearly remember taking it.” —Julie P
“Do I win a prize for most photos? I have 6,197!! And yes I pay $2.99 a month for iCloud space. I need to download pictures onto a computer. My screensaver picture is always one of the girls on the lock screen and one of the girls on my home screen. I change it often.” —Maureen
“Love that everyone else has artistic and nature shots. But, mine is me with Donnie Wahlberg from one of our NKOTB VIP shows. It makes my 15 year old self deliriously happy.” —Kristi M
“I have had my current phone for two years, and have never updated the home screen. Why? Because I was trying to convince myself that if I didn’t, it would mean I had less of a personal attachment to it 😂😂” —Tracey
“Taken on a ferry from Helsinki, Finland, to the Fortress of Suomenlinna. I was on a post graduation trip with Signy to our Norwegian-Finnish ancestral grounds 🙂 and have wonderful memories! It’s been my home screen photo since I took it July 11, 2018. I have 4,498 pictures on my phone!” —Julie H
“I still have a flip phone so I only have a few options for the wallpaper. These little penguins make me smile and remind me to be different from all the rest. I have had the same screen since I bought this phone for $20.00 dollars about 3 years [ago]. 😁🐧” —Pandy
“Ponte Vecchio in Florence. If it survived WWII, I can survive my day ;).” —Tracy
“1484 photos and the girls are on my home screen. Same photo since they were 9 & 10.” —Kathy
“I have 4634 photos and my phone screen is the standard issue gray rock that comes with ios. I have good intentions of changing it, but that hasn’t happened yet.” —Richard
“My babies and my hubby! I’ve had it up since we became empty nesters a couple months ago 😊” —Kristi E
“I have 624 photos and my home screen is of my dog Charlie. I’ve kept that photo since he died on March 2, 2017. I love the familiarity of seeing his face.” —Jill
“Mine is so close to my heart and I don’t remember it not being my lock screen. I keep thinking I should change it but I just can’t do it yet. 💔” —Angie M
“This is my home screen and has been since December 2017. I miss him so and I want to always remember his sweet nature. I still have the blanket and haven’t washed it because it has his scent on it. I have tons of pics on my phone of family, dogs, hair cuts, and mountain scenes and snow, much like my Facebook pics.” —Angie L
“This is my home screen. I’ve had it as the same since May shortly after it was taken and reminds me of my boys and the happiness they have in this picture, but also the happiness they bring to me. I have in excess of 3k pictures on my phone 😳” —Kelly
What photo do you keep on your phone’s home screen? Why did you chose that particular one? We’d love to hear. You can email us a screenshot if you would like to be included in a potential future post.
