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The memory remains: Understanding collective memory in the digital age
Ruth García-Gavilanes1, Anders Mollgaard2, Milena Tsvetkova1
1Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
Science Advances
|April 25, 2017
Summary
Internet data reveals how collective memory works. Analyzing Wikipedia viewership for aircraft crashes shows that recalling past events is often triggered by current ones, creating cascading attention effects.
Area of Science:
- Information Science
- Cognitive Science
- Network Science
Background:
- Information communication technologies, especially the Internet, are transforming information creation, storage, and recall.
- The Internet offers a unique platform for studying collective memory using large-scale, quantitative data analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate memory-triggering patterns using online data.
- To quantitatively model the flow of attention between current and past events.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of viewership statistics for Wikipedia articles related to aircraft crashes.
- Development of a quantitative model based on temporal, geographical, topical, and hyperlink similarities.
Main Results:
- A model explaining viewership flow from current events to past events was devised.
- The secondary flow of attention to past events, triggered by remembering, was found to be larger than the primary attention to current events.
- Previously undocumented cascading effects in collective attention were identified.
Conclusions:
- Online data provides valuable insights into collective memory dynamics.
- Current events significantly influence the recall of past events, leading to substantial cascading attention.
- The Internet serves as a powerful tool for studying human memory on a large scale.
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