Quantifying Collective Memories

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of collective memory using a two-phase decay process, distinguishing between short-term communicative memory and long-term cultural memory, with implications for managing public discourse.

Contribution

It introduces a two-step decay model for collective memory, highlighting the transition from communicative to cultural memory and its practical implications.

Findings

Memory decay follows a two-phase process with an initial rapid decline followed by a slower decline.

A transition point exists where cultural memory surpasses communicative memory.

The model offers insights for policymakers to manage community conversations.

Abstract

Collective memory is a common representation of the past shared by a group of people that modulates its identity. Recent literature on computational social science quantifies collective memories using expressions of those memories operationalized as the amount of collective attention focused on specific cultural icons, either artifacts or people. We model the temporal dynamics of collective memory using a two-step decay process, characterized by a short-lived and intense initial stage followed by a long-lived and milder decline of collective attention. Different collective memory mechanisms sustain the two-step process. The first is communicative memory, which corresponds to all memories supported by socializing acts. The second is cultural memory, which corresponds to all memories sustained by accessing records. Thus, this model predicts a transition time when cultural memory overcomes communicative memory. It has practical consequences related to shrinking or extending the time a specific topic is part of a community's conversation, i.e., communicative memory, empowering policymakers with valuable time to generate solutions and compromises for contingent and public problems.