Modern Technology Traps Us in Permanent Nostalgia

There's a strand of thought running through an episode of Black Mirror called "The Entire History of You" through Severance by Ling Ma that I think deals with this idea that modern technology makes it too easy to be trapped by nostalgia for our own personal history. And I do mean nostalgia in the old etymological sense of pain that comes from fond remembrances. Or at least perceived fondly.

In Black Mirror, the concept is almost literal as the main episode in the character is paralyzed by the "grain" implant and rewatching the past moments in his head. The whole episode is just awful to watch (though very well done), with the couple having sex while re-watching some previous encounter that wasn't with each other among other things.

Ling Ma's Severance is more subtle and I'm not sure she would agree with how I read her book. The fungal plague that breaks out seems to trap people in their own memories until they lack the ability to care for themselves in a basic way and they die. It's a zombie-ish story of course, except that nobody seems to be attacked or bitten. Along the way, Candace (main character) encounters others that are apparently immune from the plague except... apparently they are not. One by one, each falls - one in her childhood home, another in a shopping mall. It seems that each succumbs to the comfort of memory and habit.

Do we do the same things to ourselves? We never used to be able to so instantly review a week, a month or even a few years ago. My phone gives me "this date X years ago" updates with charming pictures that in a way make me sad because the time is gone. And I'm less sentimental than most everyone I know. In almost every way, I am happy that most of my youth passed prior to the advent of modern smart phones and digital recording tech. They are tremendously helpful but they don't allow your mind to shape past memories very well and deal with them in your own way because they are right in front of you. Yes, there are some very awkward videos from youth (and one from college years) but these haven't been viewed by anyone in probably 15+ years, if anyone even knows where exactly they are. There's a great quote from The Expanse that Miller delivers: "You know, every time you remember something, your mind changes it just a little. Until your best and your worst memories are your biggest illusions." What's left unsaid is whether or not this is truly a bad thing or perhaps if that's how we all deal with memories. Or how we used to deal with them but are no unable to because we are trapped in this cell of technology we have enabled for ourselves.

Maybe, I dunno?

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