False Memories via Technology

How much of your past is genuine? How much of it did you make up? The past is a mystery. For as much as you may trust your memory, there is the possibility that you misremember something and have no knowledge about that whatsoever. There is verifiable evidence we have false memories. Those false memories cast a shadow of doubt on anything and everything we know about ourselves. 

However, this is not an article on false memories. There are far more credible and scientifically backed articles and speeches, such as this controversial TedTalk by Elizabeth Loftus. Though it contains rhetoric considered dated by today’s standards, it is still very informational. Loftus also brings up a specific underlying point most miss out on: technology has undergone a rapid change recently relative to the rest of history. An exhaustive list of the reasons for those changes would be off-topic and, to put it frankly, confusing. 

In my twenty years of life, I have witnessed sweeping technological changes. Through those changes have come memories. I can never truly say which of them is false or real, but through technology, there is evidence that some of my memories ring true. Admittedly, technology is not foolproof evidence to prove I recall the truth. The forms in which that proof is taken vary wildly.

For example, video games have managed to stake their way as proof of my memories. I recall hour upon hour of me playing them as a child. Whether I played alone or with my family, I always found myself fully immersed in whatever video game world I entered. Whether it be the power fantasy of winning a game of Madden by 200 points or the majestic feeling of freedom found in a Final Fantasy game, I truly felt like I was in whatever game I played. Yet, thinking back, I recall a strange habit of mine. 

I haven’t the slightest clue from whence or even how I picked this up, but the habit is strange. The habit in question is my tendency to create new save files even after the most minuscule of actions. As such, I may end up with fifty different save files (how one marks progress and returns to a specific point in a video game), each less than an hour apart from one another. Some may call this the behavior of a hoarder. I, however, would call it proof. It is proof of the memories I had as a kid playing those games. It is proof that I am not making up the past. It is proof that my experiences in video games were real. Anyone who doubts them can load them into a saved file and verify the memory. It is proof that my memories are real.

Real. In today’s world, social media has led everyone to utilize the technology at their disposal. With this technology, their memories are captured and shared at a moment’s notice. However, the false memory has crept its way even into photographic evidence. Today, people stage their social media posts and plan them out in such a way that it is not conducive to memory. When I first downloaded Instagram and tried to make a post, I was immediately bombarded with a plethora of options for filters and edits for my post. Not only that, but I have bore witness to people going through every effort to set up a false imitation of what they would consider a “good life” for the camera. 

Anything you see on Instagram or any other form of social media could have been meticulously set up before the actual photograph was snapped. Even the picture itself can easily be edited once it is taken. 

Numerous advertisements for phones promise the ability to edit your pictures with ease. As seen here, we have lost our ability to easily distinguish between what is real and what is not through the use of pictures. Technology has advanced now to a point where even the basic photograph is capable of representing a completely false and fabricated memory. 

Though I won’t share the photo here, I recall finding a picture online earlier this year of a friend talking about how much fun she had at an event. The pictures showed her laughing and appeared to reflect her having fun. I was there, though, and the images she shared all portrayed a false memory. In reality, she had a terrible time and was putting on a front because the event was one she had to attend for her class. While there, she essentially tried to stay in the corner without engaging in the event. When a photo op came up, she quickly took it and returned to her corner, thus creating a false memory. 

As a direct witness to this, I am in a special spot to make light of the verberating consequences of creating false memories in this manner. Though I use that word, I do not only mean it in its negative connotation. She got an A on the assignment she had to attend the event for, just as she was trying to do. On a surface level, she accomplished her goal through the creation of a false memory. In that same breath, however, she missed out on the opportunity to network and potentially jumpstart her career. All that is left of her experience is the series of pictures she took at the event, false memories. 

As technology continues to grow, so too will its capabilities to perpetrate false memories. Whether it is a video game with unlimited save files or a picture edited for social media, we as people are only becoming more and more susceptible to false memories. Whether this is positive or negative is up to the individual to decide, but in reflecting on my experiences with false memories, I see them as an overall net negative. I shudder to think of all the life lessons I have already lost thanks to technology enabling my false memories. Even worse, I will never be able to comprehend just how many false memories I have completely. I must remain continually wary if I am to grow as a person, just as any reader of this article must remain wary. 

Xen Bossard