As social media ages, there has been an interest in looking back into the past. Because many of us have been using social media for a long time, there is a lot of history recorded on our networks. Accessing this older data can be tricky and time consuming. This is where Timehop comes into play.
Timehop lets you import your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and foursquare data into the Timehop application. Each day, Timehop will remind you of what you were doing a year ago by showing your social media postings from that time. Depending on how often you post and how much detail you share, Timehop can be a powerful stimulant of both pleasurable and painful memories.
I see Timehop as a double edged sword. It can serve as a wonderful reminder of the good times in life, providing details that may get lost in the chronological shuffle. Sometimes it can prompt you to reconnect with those people from the past that you may have lost contact with over the years. But there is a darker side to the service.
It actually challenges the old axiom, “time heals all wounds”. Painful experiences are suppose to be easier to deal with as time moves forward. But services like Timehop could instigate a relapse into the negative state experienced during that particular moment in your life.
Reminders of the past may also hinder future growth. There are times when we need to let go of the past in order to create a more promising future. Constant reminders of the past, positive and negative, could impede us from breaking free of it.
But of course, Timehop is a voluntary application. Those who don’t want to be reminded of the past can simply not use the program. However, Facebook and Twitter are jumping on this desire toward looking back with the advent of timeline and the ability to easily navigate archived tweets. Reconciling with the past may be imminent as these popular platforms continue to incorporate Timehop elements into their services. For example, Facebook has “year in review” which details major postings throughout the year. Anyone can look through a person’s timeline. Twitter will probably unveil something similar as it looks to build a more complete profile of its users.
I guess what’s old is new again.
What are your thoughts on Timehop and this wave of remembrance sweeping through social media? Did you think my headline was clever?
