Publication: Digitalized memory, forgetting and the loss of social memory
Abstract
Bir grup tarihini hatırlayarak, kökenine ait hatırlama figürlerini belleğinde canlandırarak kimli- ğinden emin olur. Bu toplumsal kimlikler gündelik olmayan törensel iletişimin nesnesini oluştu- rurlar. Bayramlar ve ritüeller, düzenli tekrarları ile kimliği koruyan bilginin iletilmesi ve devre- dilmesini, böylece kültürel kimliğin yeniden üretimini üstlenirler. Ritüel, grubun zamansal ve me- kânsal birlikteliğini garanti eder. Dijital medya teknolojileri olayların ve deneyimlerin kolayca ve ucuza depolanması olanağı sunsa da, veriler birbirlerinden kopuk ve bağlantısız ve zamansallık ve mekânsallıktan yoksun olmala- rıyla (anıtlar ve kalıcı şeylerden yoksunluk) toplumsal belleğin ve kimliğin devamını sağlamakta ya da muhafaza etmekte yetersiz kalırlar. Bunun yanı sıra hatırlamak için unutmanın şart olduğu göz önüne alındığında, toplumsal hafızanın aynı zamanda ayıklamak ve genelleştirmeye karşılık geldiğini söylemek yanlış olmaz. Peki, bunca verinin bir arada bulunduğu dijital dünyada bu ele- meye kim karar verecek ve bu eleme nasıl yapılmakta ya da yapılacak? Dijital kültürle birlikte zaman ve bellek bir çeşit akıldışı fazlalık olarak yok olmaktadır. Unutkan- lık sarsılmaz bir ilerleme inancı tarafından yönetilmektedir. Adorno ve Horkheimer’ın ifadesiyle aslında “bütün şeyleşme, bir unutmadır”. Geçmiş unutulduğu için itirazla karşılaşılmaksızın hü- küm sürer. Bunu aşmak ancak hatırlamakla mümkündür.
A group can be sure about its identity by remembering its history and refreshing the “figures of memory” in its mind. These social identities become the objects of non-daily ritual communication. Rituals and ceremonies with their regular repetitions help in transmitting and transfering the information which protect the identities; thus they undertake in reproducing the cultural identities. Rituals guarantee the temporal and spatial togetherness of a group. Although digital media technologies provide in storing the experiences and the events cheaply and easily, “datas”, which are detached and disconnected from each other and lack of temporality and spatility (lack of monuments and memoriable), they remain insufficient in providing or maintaining social memory and identity. In addition, taking into account that in order to remember something one must inevitably forget, it won’t be wrong to assert that social memory corresponds to elimination and generalization. However, who decides the elimination of all these datas in digital world and how this elimination is done or will be done? Time and memory disappear with digital culture as a kind of irrational overage. Forgetfulness is managed by an unshakable idea of progress. As Adorno and Horkheimer mentioned “all reification is a forgetting”. Since the past is forgotten, present can prevail without objection. The only way to overcome with it is to remember.
A group can be sure about its identity by remembering its history and refreshing the “figures of memory” in its mind. These social identities become the objects of non-daily ritual communication. Rituals and ceremonies with their regular repetitions help in transmitting and transfering the information which protect the identities; thus they undertake in reproducing the cultural identities. Rituals guarantee the temporal and spatial togetherness of a group. Although digital media technologies provide in storing the experiences and the events cheaply and easily, “datas”, which are detached and disconnected from each other and lack of temporality and spatility (lack of monuments and memoriable), they remain insufficient in providing or maintaining social memory and identity. In addition, taking into account that in order to remember something one must inevitably forget, it won’t be wrong to assert that social memory corresponds to elimination and generalization. However, who decides the elimination of all these datas in digital world and how this elimination is done or will be done? Time and memory disappear with digital culture as a kind of irrational overage. Forgetfulness is managed by an unshakable idea of progress. As Adorno and Horkheimer mentioned “all reification is a forgetting”. Since the past is forgotten, present can prevail without objection. The only way to overcome with it is to remember.