Conclusion: Sorting the Past

Abstract

The conclusion brings together the various threads of the book, suggesting that there is a need to better understand the underlying classification and prioritisation processes and their consequences for memory in everyday life. The conclusion outlines how the book has sought to make a specific intervention into the automatic production of memory. It is suggested that the concept of memory, and what we understand memories to be, is unlikely to go untouched by these developments. The book finishes by suggesting that there is a need for a sustained engagement with broader issues related to the algorithmic interventions that are active in in memory-making, along with a careful exploration of what people make of these processes and how they respond to them. Indeed, the changes that social media are bringing to the politics of remembering is too important to leave unchecked.