A few weeks ago, we challenged you all to tackle that dreaded item on your to-do list: your photo clutter. Get those auto-uploads going; pull those photos off of that old laptop that's been collecting dust on the bottom shelf for years; maybe even actually sort those photos into albums or let a program like Google Photos do it for you. As we dug deep into this vicious breed of digital clutter, we realized there was a bigger philosophical question underlying it all: why do we take so many photos? To start formulating an answer, we asked you to send us the photo you had taken most recently and tell us why you took it. Within these hundreds of submissions, we of course saw lots of fall foliage, lots of pictures of food, and yes, lots of cats (lots of cats - is there a correlation between podcast listeners and cat people? Seriously?). But we also got a real look at what's going through your heads when you pull out your camera app.  Here are the most common reasons we saw: You Took It With a Text Message Recipient in Mind Listener Derek Fields says he thinks photo mania is about staying connected to people in your lives who might be scattered around the globe. We think he has a point - many, many of the photos we saw were intended for a specific person to communicate a particular message... "I MMS this photo to my 'girlfriend' in Brazil who will be visiting me in December :)" (Warren in Southern California) "Needed approval for daughter's new shoes. Because Mum knows Dad does not know best." (Sam in Brooklyn) ...even if they aren't all that far away: "Every time hubs dons this shirt-jacket combo he marvels at how well they match. Sitting across from him I too marveled at how closely the tiny squares sized up. Dizzying." (Anahy) You're Imagining the Scene on Instagram or Facebook Eric's lazy cat reminded him of his son's idea to colonize Mars while leaving all the slackers back on Earth... a theory he explained in more detail to his Instagram followers: "My take is that my posts/images need to tell stories, or at least a mini ones. So I wouldn't have posted it otherwise. The initial impulse was an instinctual love and fascination for all the ways our cat finds to chill out." (Eric)  Many of you said that your photo reels are filled with failed attempts at capturing a post-worthy picture – like Annie, who sent in one of many pictures she took in search of that perfect shot of her young daughter: "My daughter with blue on her mouth and face from a blue sugar skull she just ate. I took it because I have to admit that I'm that parent trying to capture cute pictures for Instagram. This one didn't really come out so well (the blue didn't come out in the picture) so I didn't post it. I realized that I have a lot of these sorts of pictures - trying to capture that perfect moment of my daughter."  (Annie) Annie wasn't the only one caught up in the quest for Instagram perfection. There was also Sam, who decided that his picture of fall foliage wasn't quite good enough for his followers: "I was trying to get an Instagram-worthy Autumn leaves shot...but this FALLs a little flat." (Sam) You Take Pictures as Notes to Self (ahem) Your camera rolls are clogged with short term memory aids. Take Lina, who snapped a pic of trash bags to remind herself to get more. Or Cali