flâneur

#241: The fantasy of the “saved folder” - by Haley Nahman

substack.com · 1,654 words · saved by 1 readers

I recently came across an Instagram Reel in which a woman asked viewers if they remembered what video they’d watched two swipes ago. Understanding her implication right away, I combed my memory with a fighting spirit. Two swipes ago was extremely recent—somewhere in the range of 30 to 60 seconds prior, and only two “chunks” of information back. Unfortunately and of course, I couldn’t remember. My spirit in fact hadn’t been fighting, and my memory had been knocked unconscious. I do not remember anything else the woman said. Yesterday, while bookmarking a post about how to get your kids to be quiet in quiet spaces (a tip I’m sure I’ll use one day), I recalled the Reel and wondered if this action was rejecting or confirming its premise. The bookmark—a feature of every social media app I can think of, always depicted as the classy snipped end of a ribbon—seemed to be a hedge against swiping oblivion. I have hundreds of bookmarks saved on every platform I frequent (Instagram, Twitter, TikTo

I recently came across an Instagram Reel in which a woman asked viewers if they remembered what video they’d watched two swipes ago. Understanding her implication right away, I combed my memory with a fighting spirit. Two swipes ago was extremely recent—somewhere in the range of 30 to 60 seconds prior, and only two “chunks” of information back. Unfortunately and of course, I couldn’t remember. My spirit in fact hadn’t been fighting, and my memory had been knocked unconscious. I do not remember anything else the woman said. Yesterday, while bookmarking a post about how to get your kids to be…

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