Stories and Memory

Bob died when I was 11 years old.
I know him through memories and stories people have told me.
Now I am learning about him from the internet.
It tells me many new stories.

Memories and family stories were once only a part of community sharing and storytelling. Stories and information have been passed down through generations as personal memoir. Now the internet collects stories - as does the US Library of Congress.

The US Library of Congress is archiving all Twitter posts starting from 2006.

Here are two interesting articles about this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/library-of-congress-twitt_n_537330.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/technology/15twitter.html

And apparently one may follow the US Library of Congress on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/librarycongresshttp://twitter.com/librarycongress

I don't tweet on twitter, but I am interested in how collecting all these thoughts will influence the future. I am not as interested in the macro as the micro issues. I am uncomfortable believing that an algorithm can tell a story with the detail that Uncle Herbie can illustrate his experiences.

I think about future memories.
I had to say that sentence out loud.
I truly do think about future memories - and who owns and controls them.
Memories are how we interpret momentary feelings, combined with facts and experience.

I am teaching our daughters about Linda and Bob. It comes through me. I don't know where this blog is taking me, but the search engines will effect my story telling - if I let them. A pause in the experiment...

xoxo,
Bob's Daughter