SOCIAL MEDIA

& MEMORY
DR. WILL KURLINKUS
THE POLITICS OF THE INTERFACE
• Technologies are designed
to have rhetorical effects
• Technologies are designed
with memories encoded in
them (skeuomorphs)
• These designs manipulate
and persuade us to
remember and share
memories in particular
ways.
T H E W AY S W E R E M E M B E R I N T O
THE FUTURE ARE CHANGING
“WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON
W AY S T O B E T T E R I D E N T I F Y
T H E S E T Y P E S O F [ N E G AT I V E ]
M E M O R I E S A N D F I LT E R
T H E M O U T, S O T H AT P E O P L E
S E E M O R E E N J O YA B L E
CONTENT INSTEAD.” (2)
A R T I E K O N R A D — O N T H I S D AY
DESIGNER
ONE FORMER COLLEAGUE MARK, FOR INSTANCE, TOLD ME THE DRAW OF HIS
DIGITAL RECOLLECTION WAS THE ABILITY “TO HELP MYSELF AND TO HELP OTHER
PEOPLE THINK ABOUT HOW THEY’VE GROWN AND CHANGED AND HAVE LESS
ANXIETY ABOUT STUPID STUFF THAT WE DID WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER.”
ALTHOUGH NOT ALL ON THIS DAY MEMORIES ARE NOSTALGIC, THIS “REDEMPTIVE
SEQUENCE” (MCADAMS ET AL.) OF REWRITING AWKWARD PASTS INTO IDENTITY-
DEFINING GOD MEMORIES (“LOOK AT THE POSITIVE JOURNEY I MADE”) IS A
HALLMARK OF BOTH NOSTALGIA AND RESILIENCY....

MARK, HOWEVER, ALSO DESCRIBED MOMENTS WHEN ON THIS DAY EXPOSED

MEMORIES HE WAS TOO ASHAMED TO SHARE. OVER A DECADE AGO, FOR
EXAMPLE, MARK, A LIFELONG TENNIS FAN, POSTED ABOUT SERENA WILLIAMS “NOT
BEING CLASSY LIKE HER SISTER” AFTER A WIN. HE NOW RECOGNIZES HIS COMMENT
AS “DEFINITELY SEXIST AND RACIST.” WHEN IT APPEARED IN ON THIS DAY, MARK
DELETED THE ORIGINAL POST. HERE WE FIND THE SAME CHAOS AND REDEMPTION.
BUT THIS TIME BY DELETING HIS MEMORY MARK ISN’T CREATING A PUBLIC
CONVERSATION; RATHER, HE PERFORMS AN INTERNAL RENOVATION ON HIMSELF.
HE PURIFIES HIS MEMORY SO HIS PAST IS EASIER TO RETURN TO IN THE FUTURE.

— M A R K , O N T H I S D AY U S E R
THE AFFECTIVE
ECONOMIES OF
TECHNOLOGY
• What memories are we
sharing on Facebook?
• FOMO
– fear of missing the opportunity
to gain popularity. This happens
if one is late in responding to
others and in expressing
empathy when needed
– fear of missing valuable
information
– fear of being excluded from
social groups due to lack of
timely engagement
– fear of inciting negative
reactions
COMPARE
THEIR
POLITICS
OF
MEMORY
WHAT ARE
#OKBOOMER’S
PROTEST TACTICS?
• Refusal to engage
• Accelerationism (retire/die already)
• Ageism (sure grandpa)
• Neostalgic critique (we’re not in the
ideal future you think we are—you’re not
aware you’re being neostalgic)