Nostalgia in the digital era
Baby boomers and Gen Xers bring treasured memories to life with black and white photos and video tape cassettes. This is in stark contrast with today, where every single moment – from a baby’s first steps to health data – can easily be captured, stored and shared using digital technology. A team of researchers at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria and the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen investigated whether storing and sharing massive amounts of personal data is ultimately a good thing. Their findings were published in the journal ‘Psychological Inquiry’.
Precious memories are made of digital
There’s no question that the explosion of digital records improves memory for personal events and experiences, and even supports people with memory impairments. However, it also raises concerns, such as privacy risks and manipulation with the rise of deepfakes. “One can have very different intuitions about how this increased density of recorded life episodes should be evaluated,” commented Dr Fabian Hutmacher, researcher at the Chair of Psychology of Communication and New Media at JMU, in a news release. “Some people hope, for example, that we will be able to compensate the weaknesses and to reduce the distortions of human memory in this way. Others are concerned that it will rather create new potential for surveillance and undermining our privacy.” “What sets digital resources apart from these other options, however, is not only the aforementioned increased density of recorded life episodes, but also the fact that these digital resources create a searchable database consisting of a combination of different media sources that can often be accessed anywhere at any time,” Dr Hutmacher explained. “Digital resources do not just provide a passive storage, but also make it possible – using artificial intelligence, for example – to adjust and rearrange recordings in order to create, among others, digital vacation or wedding albums. This can have a profound impact on how we view past experiences,” added Prof. Stephan Schwan, who leads the Realistic Depictions Lab at IWM.
Memories live in a digital world
The researchers propose a model that provides the first systematic and complete framework to better understand autobiographical memory in the digital age. It organises existing literature and lays down new paths for future research. The model examines the nature of the changes to autobiographical memory in today’s digital media landscape and to the dangers and advantages potentially linked to these changes. The research team says more exploration is needed to shed additional light on the opportunities and hazards. “In most cases, we don’t have enough reliable data to draw definite conclusions regarding opportunities and risks yet,” concluded Dr Hutmacher. “Autobiographical memories are an important part of what makes us human. This makes further research in the coming years all the more important.”
Keywords
data, memory, digital, recording, experience, autobiographical memory