photography used slightly out of context: Simon Pais
While i’m all down for remembering everything i ever read, just imagine the havoc wreaked on courtship by remembering today. First off, you “remember” interactions that never took place because you read the details of her blog before you even met. Next, all of those blog entries you wrote reminds you of your own emotional naiveté because you were in lurve. And now you have the snarky emails and IMs and texts that show that you’re a complete dickwad and are the root cause of all relationship woes. You have the video of your breakup that you watch over and over again to see what you could’ve done better so that you don’t feel like such shit. Oh, and you have shelves of DVDs that prove that your relationship looks nothing like what “normal” relationships should look like (proof through Molly Ringwald). Somehow, just as you’re starting to feel better, you think that it couldn’t _really_ hurt to look at her MySpace. Only you found that she erased your very existence in an effort to delete the relationship out of memory. And you wonder why you’ve stolen every emo MP3 out there. (…)
Media has made it difficult for cultural memories to fade. We don’t remember the days of house calls for courtship because society moved away from that rather quickly (and few read beyond the Crib Notes of 11th grade English texts). But thanks to TV and movies, we “remember” past practices and norms. Does this mean that culture will have a much harder time evolving with the times? Or perhaps it means that there will be an ever-increasing disconnect between the generations because even though your mom didn’t fall in love like Ingrid Bergman, she’s still gonna imagine that this is how it’s supposed to be. How does the non-forgetfulness of archival media influence our culture’s ability to shift over time?
We are building technology with the implicit desire to remember everything. Every interaction, every feeling, every idea. Why? Perhaps this isn’t such a good thing. I for one would like to see my digital memories fade into hearts and flowers.
Some thoughts from Danah Boyd on the implications persistent digital memory (IM/email archives, blogs, images, video) has on culture, relationships, etc.
ARTICLE ["(...) on babies and beer goggles"]
User
The Conversation {3 comments}
A friend of mine was over today for dinner. He began talking about how he still sees “her” name on msn messenger. I asked why he doesn’t block it? He says he doesn’t understand why she doesn’t block him. It has been a year since they broke up. This little tiny name he sees everyday reminds him of the pain near the end of his relationship with her.
Perhaps this is the first time in history that everyone is a creator, that is, an artist. An artist paints it out, writes it out, records it out anyway she/he can. The world populace can now do the same. The only difference is that it is public where in the past only a select few may have seen the painting or read the book or listened to the music.
I’m hesitant to ever say anything like “the first time in history”, maybe “now more than ever” but even that does me wrong. I see where you’re going though.
Holding on to a person’s screenname, that’s perfect. Kind of a digital manifestation of retrospective uncertainty. “Maybe one day …”, etc.
“Maybe one day…” describes this well.
As for the first time in history you may be right. I think about the cave paintings in France. Those people who drew them had to suspect they would survive for some length of time for those who came after, to see and add to.
History repeating itself digitally…
Leave Your Own Comment
You can follow any responses to this entry via its RSS comments feed. You can also leave a trackback if the inclination is there.