It has long been believed that individual human memory has been strengthened by the storage, representational, reproductive, and connective capacities of technologies and media. However, such views of how memory works are being challenged amidst today's digital maelstrom. In particular, the Internet, and social media platforms, have profoundly transformed the ways individuals receive, store, share, and lose information. Memory has become more externalized, dialogical, and transactive, yet at the same time, unwieldy, opaque, and inaccessible.
In The Remaking of Memory in the Age of the Internet and Social Media, Qi Wang and Andrew Hoskins have assembled scholars from cognitive psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and media and communication studies to synthesize emerging social and cognitive science research on the impact of the Internet and social media on remembering and forgetting. They probe whether human memory is being threatened by a shift from a healthy reliance to a dependency on digital media and technologies. The book illuminates theoretical and empirical research which shows the consequences of human entanglements with the Internet and social media for memory representation, expression, and socialization in individuals and the implications for the family, community, and society. Gathering the leading international scholars of Memory Studies together, this volume offers a new interdisciplinary agenda of inquiry into the digital remaking of individual, collective, and cultural memory.
Part I: Introduction Chapter 1: The Internet Remaking of Memory: What Are the Important Questions? -Qi Wang and Andrew Hoskins Part II: The Digital Self in the Making Chapter 2: The Online Extension of Autobiographical Memory: A Psycho-Cultural Perspective -Qi Wang Chapter 3: The Forgetting Ecology: Losing the Past Through Digital Media and AI -Andrew Hoskins Chapter 4: Sharing personal memories on social media: Motives and mnemonic consequences -Charles B. Stone, Shayla Dockery, and Angelina N. Vasquez Part III: The ""GOOGLE EFFECT""? Chapter 5: Varieties of Offloading Memory: A Framework -Evan F. Risko, Megan O. Kelly, Xinyi Lu, and April E. Pereira Chapter 6: The Changing Dynamics and Consequences of Memory Retrieval in the Age of the Internet -Benjamin C. Storm, Dana-Lis Bittner, and Jeremy Yamashiro Chapter 7: Photography, Digital Media and Technology: Moving from Effects on Memory to Entanglements in Remembering Activity -Tim Fawns Part IV: Fake News and False Memories Chapter 8: Memories for public events in the Internet age: Fake news, false memories, and filter bubbles -Gillian Murphy, Rebecca Egan, and Ciara M. Greene Chapter 9: Continued Influence of Misinformation and the Information Disorder -Li Qian Tay and Ullrich K. H. Ecker Chapter 10: Is it possible for justice to be blind when social media is everywhere? -Heather M. Kleider-Offutt and Beth B. Stevens Chapter 11: Fake History: Digital Memory and the Specter of National Socialism in the Capital Riot -Jennifer Evans and Brandon Rigato Part V: Remembering Through the Individual and the Net Chapter 12: Exploring Online Social Interactions in the Remaking of Memory -Suparna Rajaram Chapter 13: When Memories Become Data -Rik Smit Chapter 14: Between Coping and Commodification: Nostalgic Remembering in a Connected World -Katharina Niemeyer and Emily Keightley Part VI: From the Person to the Community and Society Chapter 15: Hybrid Methodologies for Studying Social and Cultural Memory in the Post-Digital Age -Samuel Merrill Chapter 16: Weaponization of Memory: Viruses and Affective Resonance Martin Pogacar Chapter 17: Understanding Holocaust Memory on Instagram and TikTok Noam Tirosh Chapter 18: Remembering in pandemic time: A digital museum's 'slow memory' work Karen Worcman and Joanne Garde-Hansen Part VII: Concluding Remarks Chapter 19: ""Don't Panic"": Navigating the New World of Memory's Remaking -Louis Klein & Amanda Barnier
Qi Wang is Joan K. and Irwin M. Jacobs Professor of Human Development, Psychology, and Cognitive Science at Cornell University. She is the author of The Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture (Oxford 2013), and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Andrew Hoskins is Interdisciplinary Professor in Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Journal of Memory, Mind & Media, founding Editor-in-Chief of the Sage Journal of Memory Studies, and founding Co-Editor of the Palgrave Macmillan book series Memory Studies.
Reviews for The Remaking of Memory in the Age of the Internet and Social Media
Do the internet and social media enhance or obliterate human memory? Is memory even the same thing as it has been in the past? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about prospects for the future? How do the new media affect our personal memories and our very identity? These are just some of the fundamental questions addressed in this volume. Starting with a fascinating dialogue between the editors * two of the world's leaders in memory studies, the volume presents a landmark discussion that promises to have a major impact for years to come.James V. Wertsch, David R. Francis Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis * Over the past 25 years, social media and the internet have profoundly shaped the way memories are produced, recycled, archived, and retrieved. Wang & Hoskins' edited volume The Remaking of Memory in the Age of the Internet and Social Media addresses several 'burning' questions about what digital media 'do' to our personal and collective memories. A must-read for media scholars and, due to the interdisciplinarity of this team effort, a primer for all academics from the humanities, social sciences, and neurosciences. * José van Dijck, Professor of Media and Digital Society, Utrecht University (NL) * Questions regarding the nature of memory in the age of social media and the Internet have come to the forefront in several disciplines. This exciting interdisciplinary collection brings together leading experts who address these questions and set an agenda for future research. I highly recommend this essential volume to anyone interested in what memory is and where it is headed. * Daniel L. Schacter, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Seven Sins of Memory *
