Last week’s Flora Film Friday featured an episode of Black Mirror entitled “The Entire History of You”. The basic premise of the episode is that people possess a device that allows them to play back any moment of their lives as many times as they would like. This device acts like an external hard drive for the brain, keeping every memory on permanent file when the brain cannot remember everything.

Before watching the episode, the GRF running the event asked us if we would like to have a device where we could store every memory in our lives. At first, I had some mixed feelings about the device’s premise. It could be helpful for schoolwork and remembering small things like names and faces. However, it could lead to an obsession over all of our pitfalls (similar to what happened in the episode). As I thought about it more, I realized we already have a modified version of this device. In fact, you are reading this post using it right now. The Internet (and any device with access to it) is our external memory source. It is where we store all of our pictures, work, conversations, almost everything. If you ever want to think back to a text conversation from a week ago, you can just scroll up and read it word for word. If you want to see other people’s memories, just go on social media and see any moment from your friends’ lives. While the parallel between the device in the episode and the Internet is there, the Internet is still not as advanced as the device. In order for something to be saved online, it must be done manually, meaning our short term memory must supplement it. I don’t think we are built to handle the emotional strain of remembering everything. That is why I feel that the Internet is a safe compromise of the device. It allows us to choose what we remember forever, avoiding obsessions over the negatives and truly dangerous consequences.