Contrary to much research, and despite lots of clever product design, digital life curation is not quite so all-consuming.

Snapchat – which enables users to exchange picture messages that self-delete within a few seconds of receipt – just raised a $60m funding round at a valuation of $800m, and is now carrying almost 200m daily snaps.

Public / Semi-public communication creates a greater cognitive overhead than private, ephemeral communication.

It’s not surprising, then, that some choose to opt out of platforms on which they feel a need to curate, and opt in to platforms on which curation is barely possible.

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Reference:

Garde-Hansen, J. (2009). My memories? Personal digital archive fever and Facebook. In Save as… Digital memories, ed. Garde-Hansen, J., Hoskins, A., and Reading, A.. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.135-150

Full text: http://ds.haverford.edu/fortherecord/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Garde-Hansen.pdf