Our memory is fallible. It is never a faithful duplicate of reality but reflects our beliefs, motives, moods, and current states of mind more generally. It is further subject to a variety of external influences, suggestions, and manipulations. In the era of the Internet and social media, the fallibility of our memory is magnified exponentially. Here are some examples from recent research.
When we know that we can find certain information through search engines like Google (e.g., What are the 10 smallest countries in the world?), we tend not to remember that information ourselves. Even though we may remember where exactly to locate the information, our memory for the information itself is poor.
This phenomenon is often dubbed as the “Google Effect”: We tend to forget information readily available online. On the upside, utilizing the Internet as an external storage can help ease our memory burden. This is particularly important in an age of information abundance. However, it can also undermine our higher-level cognitive activities, such as creativity and decision-making, where mental integration of diverse information is required.
We often repost or retweet when we see things we find interesting, important, consistent with our views, or just outrageous. What we do not realize is that the act of reposting can interfere with our own understanding and memory of the information we repost. This is because the decision to repost, whether to impress others, to express ourselves, to make a point, or to share something useful, takes away some of the mental resources that we would otherwise use to understand and remember the information. As a result, we tend to remember the information we repost less well than that which we merely read through but do not repost.
Our memory is selective: We remember the things that are important to us and forget those that are inconsequential as our life unfolds. This selective remembering frees mental resources and reflects the adaptive nature of human memory. However, it is artificially amplified by social media when we selectively post some events and leave out others.
We remember the events that we posted online and tend to forget those we did not post. We remember the event details captured in the pictures we posted online and tend to forget the details not captured. The periodic reminders of what happened this day last year or 10 years ago that many social media platforms send further reinforce our memories of the posted information. In the end, our life stories can become increasingly confined by the collection of snapshots we post online.
The Internet and social media pour out an overabundance of information mixed with facts, fake news, and manipulation and distort our memory in the process. The various ways of interaction among social media users, such as group chats, threaded comments, and direct messaging, can propagate misinformation and produce false memories in individual users as well as cybercommunities. Exposure to online misinformation can overwrite what we know—particularly specific details—and contribute to false memories.
This can have important real-life consequences: Misinformation, such as when an innocent person is accused of a crime, can result in mistaken eyewitness identification. Technological embellishments, such as deepfake videos, livestreaming, and augmented reality, make it almost impossible for social media users to distinguish fact from fiction and further contaminate memory.
Memory is the basis of our beliefs and attitudes and, in turn, our behaviors, decision-making, and civil engagement. It is critical to understand the impact of the Internet and social media on how we remember and forget. This will help us identify ways to unitize the technology at our service while counteracting the adverse effects.
References
Wang, Q., & Hoskins, A. (forthcoming). The Remaking of Memory in the Age of the Internet and Social Media. Oxford University Press.
Wang, Q. (2022). Memory online: Remembering in the age of the Internet and social media. [Special issue]. Memory, 30(4).
Wang, Q. (2021). The cultural foundation of human memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 151-179. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-070920-023638
Stone, C. B., & Wang, Q. (2019). From conversations to digital communication: The mnemonic consequences of consuming and sharing information via social media. Topics in Cognitive Science, 11(4), 774-793. doi:10.1111/tops.12369
Social Media Makes Our Memory More Fallible
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06.03.2024
Our memory is fallible. It is never a faithful duplicate of reality but reflects our beliefs, motives, moods, and current states of mind more generally. It is further subject to a variety of external influences, suggestions, and manipulations. In the era of the Internet and social media, the fallibility of our memory is magnified exponentially. Here are some examples from recent research.
When we know that we can find certain information through search engines like Google (e.g., What are the 10 smallest countries in the world?), we tend not to remember that information ourselves. Even though we may remember where exactly to locate the information, our memory for the information itself is poor.
This phenomenon is often dubbed as the “Google Effect”: We tend to forget information readily available online. On the upside, utilizing the Internet as an external storage can help ease our memory burden. This is particularly important in an age of information abundance. However, it can also undermine our higher-level cognitive activities, such as creativity and decision-making, where mental........
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