Memory Retention and Cultural Resonance: Exploring the Impact of Ephemeral Digital Narratives

Abstract

The accelerating progress of the digital landscape has led to the rise of consumption of content that is short-lived and fast-paced. In this context, social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat have become predominant for their effective use of temporary digital content that lasts for a brief period (usually 24 hours) before disappearing. Ephemerality has become the zeitgeist of the 21st century. In a world where immediacy and instant gratification are highly valued, the pattern of consumption of digital media is also aligned to such quick snippets of information rather than watching a long video. This paradigm shift is redefining how people perceive time and memory in the digital age. This preliminary study analyses the effect of such ephemeral digital narratives on the memory retention of consumers and also explores the implications of such content on cultural and collective memory. A sample of 100 participants ranging from the age of 18-35 years, were exposed to curated ephemeral content from Instagram and Snapchat for seven days. Participants were exposed to different media types, presentation styles, and cognitive demands. Daily surveys examined their memory retention using various question formats. The study examined ten hypotheses using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine how media type (video, image, both), presentation style (visual, verbal/textual, both), cognitive processing demands (shallow, deep processing), and question format affect recall effectiveness.