What lies behind our need to rigorously document the thoughts, deeds, images, and sounds of everyday life? And more curiously, why would anyone want to spend time going over such material? At any given point someone is using a pen, a camera, a web cam, or a computer to document with varying degrees of detail, personal thoughts, observations, or glimpses of private space and life. And for each of these, there is usually at least one person reading, watching, and even responding. Saved from Oblivion is a comparative analysis of how individuals have used various media technologies to document their everyday lives. More specifically, this book focuses on the major forms of self-documentation that have been in use since the late nineteenth century and covers traditional diaries, snapshot photography, home movies/videos, and web-based media such as web cams and online diaries or journals.

Autorentext

The Author: Andreas Kitzmann is currently Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Letters at the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University, Toronto. Prior to his appointment at York University, he was Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Karlstad, Sweden. He received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from McGill University, and has written widely on the impact of communications technology on the construction of identity, electronic communities, and the influence of new media on narrative conventions.