Eternal Memory of the Facebook Mind

The Ongoing Transformation

Social media platforms like Facebook and Spotify analyze huge quantities of data from users before feeding selections back as personal “memories.” How do the algorithms select which content to turn into memories? And how does this feature affect the way we remember--and even what we think memory is? We spoke to David Beer, professor of sociology at the University of York, about how algorithms and classifications play an increasingly important role in producing and shaping what we remember about the past.

Recommended reading:

• David Beer reviews Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Unending Consumption of Culture by David Arditi: “More and More and More Culture”
• Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory: Classification, Ranking, and the Sorting of the Past by Ben Jacobsen and David Beer
• Spotify Wrapped, Spotify’s yearly wrap-up of your listening habits.

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