Memory
Nostalgia is not what it used to be, and it is measurable
The word once described an illness. Its journey to a marketing category is short, documented and slightly alarming.
Memory
How we store, misplace and reconstruct the recent past.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Memory
Why the recent past is harder to verify than the distant one
The 1990s are, in several practical ways, less well documented than the 1890s. The reasons are structural.
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Memory
The photograph that cost nothing and what abundance did to remembering
People now take more images in a week than a household once produced in a decade. More pictures has not meant more memory.
Memory
Forgetting used to be the default and now it has to be requested
For most of history, information decayed unless somebody worked to keep it. That has reversed, and the consequences are still being…
Memory
Flashbulb memories and the certainty that is usually wrong
Vivid memories of where you were during a major event feel exact and are frequently inaccurate, which is one of the…
Memory
When everybody misremembers the same detail
Large groups of people confidently share memories of things that did not happen. The explanations are mundane and more interesting…
Memory
The home video formats nobody can play any more
Family life from roughly 1980 onward sits on tapes and discs whose players are failing. The window for recovering it is closing.
Memory
Dating a photograph with nothing written on the back
Undated family photographs can often be placed within a few years using clothing, print stock and processing marks. The techniques…
Memory
The year a period stops being something anybody remembers
Every era passes a threshold where the last person who lived through it dies. What happens to a period at that moment is measurable.
Memory
Oral history is almost always gathered too late
The best time to record someone is decades before anybody thinks to. By the time a project is funded, the useful witnesses have…
Memory
Handwriting, note-taking and what the hand was doing for the head
Writing by hand is slower than typing, and that slowness appears to be doing something useful. The evidence is real and narrower…
Memory
The family story that cannot be checked
Every family carries a few claims about its past that nobody can verify. Working out why they resist checking is more useful than…