Nietzsche’s ‘active forgetfulness’ in the face of the avalanche of digital data | This Is Not a Sociology Blog

When there were limits to storage we had to think carefully about what was really worth keeping. Today we store first and think whether it is useful later. Companies store vast quantities of data on us as customers and we increasingly keep archives on many aspects of our lives photographing the most insignificant social events, commenting on them and posting them online…

This level of archiving is likely to bring social and psychological consequences which are yet not yet clear. It is, however, perhaps time to start considering whether it might be beneficial to practice what Nietzsche described as ‘active forgetfulness’. This stops concerns laying heavy on us by aiding our psychic assimilation. For Nietzsche forgetfulness is an active capacity which enables us to make room for the new and for ‘superior’ functions. He claimed that there can be no happiness, calm or order without forgetfulness. Indeed, action itself is stifled by excessive remembering.

via Nietzsche’s ‘active forgetfulness’ in the face of the avalanche of digital data | This Is Not a Sociology Blog.