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ONE WAY MEMBERSHIP. “Like other kinds of what it is to be social, being a member of the multitude is not something that one can or easily want to leave: attempts to disconnect always end in failure. In some ways, membership of the multitude may feel like being part of traditional collective or crowd.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

THE MULTITUDE. “It is an essential vehicle for acknowledging the state of digital memory as transcendent of the traditional imaginary, or rather delimitation, of the collective as a usefully distinct and locatable form of memory. “ https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

THE AUTHENTIC VILLAGE. “The modern self has been traditionally protected by the calming absorption of a trusted and intimate collective --importantly small in number -- and by the emotional dissipation of chronological time.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

LOSS OF MIDDLE GROUND. “Rather, since around 2005, the multitude has vacated the centre ground, with all the most ugly and irrational in human thought aroused through rage and dismay thriving in the polarizing virality of social networking.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

MYTH OF EQUALITY. “Thus, the new social that is made by the multitude also entraps it; the real challenge here is to see beyond the myth of digital media democratization. The digitally fostered values of openness have driven a culture of unbridled commentary that reveals that there is no ‘mainstream’, despite the veneer of the promotion of the egalitarian Web: “join the conversation” invites Twitter, “Comment is free” declares The Guardian.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

ARCHIVES RUN RIOT. “However, as the archive has broken free of its bonds of space, institution and regimented classification, it has run riot, consuming almost everything in its path. Thus, as Kroker puts it: “the content of the archive has suddenly and risibly expanded to encompass the totality of life itself.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

QUASI ARCHIVES. “As Van House and Churchill observe: “Archives sit in the boundary between public and private. Current archives extend well beyond a person, a space, an institution, a nation state. They are socio-technical systems, neither entirely social nor technical.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

HYPERCONNECTED ARCHIVES. “The archives of a broadcast era mass media, once trapped in the archival space of a vault or library subject to the material conditions of order, classification, and retrieval, are rendered fluid through their hyperconnectivity.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

THE ARCHIVE AS MEDIA. “Indeed, today, the archive can be seen as a medium in its own right, as it has been liberated from ‘archival space into archival time’. The notion of the archive as static is replaced by the much more fluid temporalities and dynamics of ‘permanent data transfer’, defining the new memory ecology.” https://lnkd.in/dWiV2eZ View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this small sampling of a much larger chapter by Professor Andrew Hoskins. In my view, it is a remarkably insightful portrayal of the wrenching social changes the digital age is foisting at breakneck speed on us, our children, and (sadly) our politics. Personally, I find it is all happening too quickly with too little wise commentary to wrap my arms around these events, from flash mobs to the ubiquitous screen. This author is a great start to figuring it out a bit better. View in LinkedIn