![]() Joshua Foer writes in his book Moonwalking with Einstein that “If memory is our means of preserving that which we consider most valuable, it is also painfully linked to our own transience…when we die our memories die with us” (Foer 19). It is our memories which create our story, and our story which has the power to change the world and help others. This is deeply troubling to me as I believe, as does Joshua Foer, that we are the sum of our memories. This means that most of the time, after an evening spent mostly on one’s phone and not actually interacting with friends in real life, the memories which only ever existed on the phone disappear forever. The next pressing issue having to do with the story feature on Snapchat is the fact that they only save 24 hours at a time, and then disappear unless you go through the trouble of saving it separately. It is possible people want to just forget about whatever happened the day before, and that is why they use the story feature, it enables you to have a night of fun that you don’t necessarily have to remember the next day. The externalization of memory may cause people to not hold on to experiences for longer periods of time, to forget events sooner. ![]() In addition and equally troubling is that they found the “loss or compromise of data stored on digital devices, and smartphones in particular, would cause immense distress, particularly among women and younger people”(Kaspersky Lab 3). They found that “One in three European consumers is happy to forget, or risk forgetting information they can easily find again”( Kaspersky Lab 3). This very same phenomena, of storing memories externally rather than in our brains, is discussed in a study about ‘Digital Amnesia’, done by the Kaspersky Institute. This is a danger to individuals and society as a whole, as it is very hard to learn from mistakes and gain valuable experiences when we are so prohibited from fully internalizing these experiences. This means that instead of our memories shaping who we are, we become empty vessels, only momentarily filled when we look back on saved memories on our devices. This effect is only compounded further by of the fact that we are relying on our devices to save the memories which already were only weakly formed in our brains. This lack of awareness of one’s surroundings prohibits the brain from being able to make the necessary connections for forming deep and lasting memories. When we have a memorable life experience, instead of creating a strong sensory and spatial memory of the event, we bring ourselves out of the moment by constantly being on our phones. ![]() Moreover, Snapchat’s story feature is a prime example of how the externalization of memory can have negative long-term consequences. Therefore, the story feature on Snapchat is detrimental to memory, as well as the development of friendship and a lifelong story. This plants a false memory in the mind, and leaves a lingering negativity where normally a memory of an event with friends would be a positive- it creates resentment. Sometimes people will feel left out of an event (the FOMO phenomenon, fear-of-missing-out), but still have a memory of it because they saw it happen on someone else’s story. This competition is a tremendously negative aspect of this feature, and it is not healthy for friendships. ![]() However, on a deeper level of self-analysis, I frequently find that I am trying to show off, and brag about what I am doing. When I go out with friends I will often post what I am doing onto my story, so that I can show the people who follow me on social media. The story feature is not only dangerous for ourselves, but can have negative effects on friendships and other relationships. The story feature brings up an important point of introspection for this next generation, one has to ask themselves what kind of story they are creating and who they want to share that with. Often times friends compete with themselves and try to brag to others about what they are doing or what their plans are for that night. One needs to work to create a lifelong story to share with others, not just a day-long story. Snapchat places a 24 hour expiration date on your life.Īlthough Snapchat and other social media applications that have integrated this feature allow us to conveniently share our activities with friends, I believe this is ultimately a detrimental feature, as it makes us live day-to-day. When this 24 hour-long period expires, whatever you posted the day before for all of your friends to see disappears forever. With the introduction of the story feature on Snapchat, we are able to capture and post pictures and videos of moments and events occurring in the last 24 hours of our lives. ![]()
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