118. Socialization of memory

Psychologists have known for a long time about the social nature of higher mental processes (from Vygotsky?).

But modern social networks make a new note in this question.

If you use the network as a magazine, telling it about events and experiences that are meaningful to you, i.e. as an external memory, then you are faced with a social tail or footprint.
')
As people react (evaluate and comment) your messages with some lag, they hold your focus on the experiences you describe for longer than you could do.

Thus, your social environment prolongs your memory, and not only.

By watching or ignoring your network friends, they play the role of a specific filter that eliminates or reinforces episodes of your experience.

It is clear that if one event causes a stormy response and discussion, and the other remains unheeded, the first will be remembered better than the second.

Those. bringing your life to people, you inevitably expose it to their influence. The crowd of your friends begins to form, if not your very life, then, at least, memories of it.

But there is a "but." For the effect to be felt, a certain intensity of this social life is necessary. The activity of your friends should be high enough to establish a stable interaction.

And this is impossible to guarantee, because not all people are active in the network. And then the quality must be taken in quantities.

Having a large social circle, you are likely to receive an almost immediate response to your messages, since at least one interested person will be online.

In one of our webinars , Andrei Sikorsky and I talked about the importance of third-level connections, or “random” relationships, which allow you to create an interactive social space that interacts with you, prolongs your experiences, and participates in shaping your attitude to your life.

It is clear that this interaction is not suitable for everyone. But more and more people are involved in it, finding meaning in these changes.