(Re)connecting the Past: Remarks Upon the Role of Oral History in Social Media as Part of Modern Intellectual and Public Discourse in 21st Century Poland

Hadrian Kryśkiewicz, MA
Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków
Institute of History and International Relations, University of Szczecin
PhD student
hadrian.kryskiewicz@gmail.com
Scientific paper
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3773816

FULL TEXT IN PDF

Abstract: What does it take for a modern man to understand his past comprehensively? With the progress of technology nowadays assuming an ever-rapid speed, oral history – one of the important means of understanding our ancestry – can be commonly encountered, though with different attributes of historical “illustriousness” marking each individual’s testimony (depending on the context of a material’s publication, as well as the historical background). Everyone has acquired new methods of expression, made possible by social media. An important testimony can now be recorded live and in real time (practically by everyone possessing a computer or mobile phone) with a very broad range of broadcast, thanks to the Internet. However, spoken history, whether in the traditional or digital realm, could also pave way for many erroneous impressions. As a result, one may hypothetically wonder how oral history stands up to the task of didacticism in our contemporary reality. Has it lost its value regarding popular history, or perhaps even taken a place not witnessed before? And how does it now affect an individual “user” as part of the digital humanities? Following the achievements in theoretical workshops in the fields of sociology, history, as well as cultural anthropology, this paper focuses on underlining the most important aspects of the presence of oral history in modern historical discourse, with regard to the technological assets at public disposal. The main purpose is to familiarize the reader with key issues related to the topic, more specifically to highlight the patterns in which oral history nowadays functions in social media, define the relevant possibilities as well as dangers, and to elaborate upon the matter of the changes which occurred in oral history reception because of the Internet community. The secondary goal is to provide the reader with an opportunity for critical assessment of the attributes of oral history in the digital era.

Keywords: Polish history, oral history, digital history, Internet community, digital era

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