Social Media Makes Our Memory More Fallible

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.

The Internet makes us “forgetful”

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.

Digital storage

Source: freemockupsorg / Pexels

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.

Reposting interferes with our memory of what we repost

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.

Selective remembering

Source: Blue Bird / Pexels

Posting makes our memory more selective

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.

Social media contributes to false memory

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. For example, 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.

In conclusion

Memory is the basis of our beliefs and attitudes and, in turn, our behaviors, decision-making, and civic 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.