The virtual world of the cultural memory: a fantasy or an objective reality?

The relevance of the researches that are devoted to the cultural memory is confirmed by a memorial boom which in the 21st century is shown through the social and cultural projects not only in real, but also in virtual space. The most perspective projects in this field connect memory and culture, memory and virtual reality. The last one meets the modern requirements of the memory consumer, reacting to its orders and allowing to take an active position in relation to the reminiscences. The researches connecting the memory and the culture which are actively financed by many countries through the system of grants are directed to preserving the memory as a priority target of the state preservation. The least studied the area in a cross-disciplinary research of the cultural memory is an interaction of memory and virtual space. The ratio of presence of the real and virtual worlds in the modern human life quickly changes in favor of the virtual world. Many countries seriously consider the Internet as the most powerful tool for memory preservation. It is possible to give Hong Kong (http://www.hkmemory.hk/index.html) as an example of the global projects on memory virtualization as the answer to the program of UNESCO "World memory". The Russian virtual content of the cultural memory is presented by the websites devoted to the heroic pages of our history or grandiose cultural events (http://www.may9.ru, etc.). Scientific and popular publications (the online magazines Gefter, the New literary review) move to the virtual space as well. The Internet allows to increase reader's audience and to work effectively on its expansion. Social networks become the popular platform for the cultural memory virtualization not only in Russia, but also worldwide. The analysis of the content of Facebook and VKontakte which is carried out by the author of the article has shown the difference in the application of networks data by the Russian and European users. Europeans are more emotional, open in their posts, tell about personal life, comment the even insignificant events. The Russian users are often limited to photos with rare comments. The main part of the content is made by reposts of socially important, advertizing, cultural and other orientation. Thus, in recent years the cultural memory cardinally changes a vector of the development, actively moving from the real world to the virtual space. The Internet in all its variety gives the chance for the further preservation and development of the cultural memory. Moreover, the virtual space considerably expands the horizons of the cultural memory, involving the widest audience in the activity.

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