{"id":1002,"date":"2017-03-20T23:47:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T23:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2017-03-20T23:58:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T23:58:17","slug":"will-these-memories-ever-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/03\/20\/will-these-memories-ever-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory in a Digital Age: Will These Memories Ever Last?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, I have become heavily interested in the concept of how to manage memories within our vast digital landscape. I am also particularly fascinated in the newly popularized desire for digital literature and how this medium redefines how we tell stories. In my English 220: Literary Analysis class last year, we read Stuart Campbell\u2019s interactive comic, <\/span>These Memories Won\u2019t Last<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which takes advantage of its digitized format to make an argument about the fragility of memories in digital spaces. Campbell\u2019s piece takes the reader on a journey through the memories of his Grandfather during his time fighting in World War Two, fleeing to Australia as a refugee, and his current struggle with dementia. The central premise of the piece is the loss of memory but also the importance of sharing stories, which is shown by Campbell\u2019s narration of his Grandfather\u2019s memories. If you take a look at the online narrative, you can see that Campbell uses a fading effect to create a sense of urgency to read the story before the images and text disappear. You are also unable to scroll upwards, meaning that you cannot go back and re-read the text without refreshing the page to start from the beginning. Not only does the fading of images and the inability to scroll upwards correspond to the Grandfather\u2019s inability to recount some of his memories, but it also represents how our memories can become less accessible when we project them into digital spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An image of the grandpa from the story, These Memories Won’t Last. Note how the flimsy string holds the entire story together. View source here.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through the form of his digital story, Campbell demonstrates the short lifespan of data in the digital world which connects to the rhetoric we are exploring in class concerning the curation of one\u2019s \u201cdigital afterlife.\u201d In part of Rob Walker\u2019s article, <\/span>Cyberspace When You\u2019re Dead<\/span><\/i><\/a>, he explores how online accounts that eventually become obsolete can influence the cultivation of one\u2019s digital legacy. The fact that Campbell decides to use a flimsy string to hold his story together could comment on the issue Walker explores regarding the preservation of digital memories and enhances the argument about the fragility of memories within online spheres. As I continued to research digital memory for my English class last year, I came across an amazing book entitled, <\/span>When We Are No More: How Digital Memory is Shaping our Future<\/span><\/i>, written by Abby Smith Rumsey. In her book, she describes the need to reinvent how we preserve memory, questioning how historians will be able understand our own time if all of our memories exist in digital codes that may no longer be decipherable. To combat the problem regarding memory in the digital world, she writes, \u201c<\/span>The new paradigm of memory is more like growing a garden: Everything we entrust to digital code needs regular tending, refreshing, and periodic migration to make sure it is still alive\u2026\u201d (Rumsey 148). This claim leads me to question what spaces are best for the storage of our memories.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Abby Smith Rumsey and her book, When We Are No More: How Digital Memory is Shaping our Future. View source here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why do we feel compelled to store our memories on online spaces when we know that they will eventually expire? A large portion of Rumsey\u2019s argument incorporates neuroscience into various discussions regarding how data storage differs from memory. Consolidation, for instance, is a facet of internal memory formation that is not enhanced by digital use. During this process, new perceptions are incorporated into the old and \u201cconnections between the new data coming into the brain find their home in existing mental contexts or webs of associations\u201d (Rumsey 114). This is a process that can only be performed within someone\u2019s brain. A computer is able to store certain memories, but it cannot make complex and far-reaching connections between specific scenarios like the brain. Relying on our devices as extensions of our brains corrupts the beautiful processes that are built within our own internal systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading <\/span>These Memories Won\u2019t Last <\/span><\/i>is especially important as we discuss digital memory and what happens to your data when you die because it reflects the reality of telling a story about fading memories within a medium that is supposed to be timeless. As a result, this raises the questions: Does the human mind become the best place for human memories to be stored? Is it more effective to pass our memories on from person to person through shared stories? Think about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campbell, Stuart. \u201cThese Memories Won\u2019t Last.\u201d These Memories Won\u2019t Last. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 March. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rumsey, Abby Smith. When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future. N.p.:n.d. Print.<\/p>\n

Walker, Rob. “Cyberspace When You\u2019re Dead.” The New York Times<\/i>. The New York Times, 08 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, I have become heavily interested in the concept of how to manage memories within our vast digital landscape. I am also particularly fascinated in the newly popularized desire for digital literature and how this medium redefines how we tell stories. In my English 220: Literary Analysis class last year, we … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Memory in a Digital Age: Will These Memories Ever Last?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-b"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}