During the last 12 months, have you looked at photographs with family or friends? During the last 12 months,have you taken any photographs or videos to preserve memories? In the nationwide survey in 1995 of nearly 1, 500 people,91% of respondents (受访者) said they'd looked at photographs with family or friends and83% had taken a photograph in the past year. If the survey were repeated today,those numbers would certainly be higher. The popularity of smartphone cameras and social media has led to an increase in photo-taking and sharing, from capturing everyday moments to special occasions.
So are all of these captured moments,these personal memories,a part of history? For historians Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, the answer is YES,and they believe the very concept of history is developing. They led the 1995 survey to understand how people thought about the past. This groundbreaking study was welcomed by historians and those working in museums,because it helped them to think about the public's understanding of their field.
Little did Rosenzweig and Thelen know the subject of history was about to be affected by a host of technologies. For example, over a third of the survey's respondents said they had researched their family history. The activity got much easier the following year,when Paul Brent Allen and Dan Taggart launched Ancestry. com,which is now one of the largest online genealogical(宗谱的) databases. Researching your family tree no longer means studying documents in the local library.
The survey also asked whether respondents had watched a movie or television show about history in the last year; four-fifths responded they had. The survey was conducted shortly before the 1 January 1995 launch of the History Channel, which opened the floodgates on history-themed TV. Nowadays,streaming services let people watch historical documentaries non stop on demand.
Today,people aren't just watching history. They're recording it and sharing it in real time. As these technologies become commonplace,they are rewriting the official account of history. Maybe the best way to think about Rosenzweig and Thelen's survey is that it offered a snapshot(快照)of public habits,as those habits were about to change unavoidably.