Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Integrating Computerized Linguistic and Social Network Analyses to Capture Addiction Recovery Capital in an Online Community
Published on: May 31, 2019
Collective memory and social media
Robbert-Jan Adriaansen1, Rik Smit2
1History Department, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands; History Department, Ghent University, Belgium.
Abstract:
This review examines how the field of digital memory studies analyzes social media's transformation of collective memory. We trace theoretical reconceptualizations of collective memory to concepts like connective memory and memory of the multitude, showing how platformization reshapes remembering and forgetting through algorithmic curation. The review identities new mnemonic practices enabled by social media - hashtag commemoration, memetic memory, and digital memory activism - which demonstrates how platform features both democratize and manipulate historical narratives. We identify key challenges: methodological and data access limitations, Western-centric bias, and artificial intelligence as emerging memory agents. As social media platforms continuously evolve as primary sites for memory construction, digital memory studies must constantly adapt its approaches to understand how societies remember in changing networked environments.
Related Concept Videos
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Group Polarization
Social Proof
Autobiographical Memory
Explicit Memories
Episodic memory contains information about personally experienced events and is reported as a story. An example of episodic memory is recalling a birthday celebration. This type of memory includes the what, where, and when of an event, as...
Flashbulb Memory

