Donate your unanswered WhatsApps, long-forgetten Her profiles, and Snapchat screengrabs…
Not so long ago, the souvenirs of a romantic relationship involved mixtapes, letters, jewellery, photographs and that knackered, old hoody you stole and refused to give back (sorry, not sorry…)
After a breakup, all of that stuff tends to get tucked away in a drawer (and/or taken out occasionally to sob into), but with the continued spread of social media and digital technologies comes a whole host of digital break up momentos.
Now, Daniel Herron and Professor Wendy Moncur, researchers at the University of Dundee, are exploring what "digital souvenirs" people keep after a breakup – both the how and the why.
In Digital Separations, an international collaboration with the Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia, they are carrying out a world-wide exercise to collect those mementos. It is hoped that the exercise will give people a greater awareness of the permanence their romantic communications online, encouraging them to actively consider the digital footprint they are creating during a relationship.
The team have already begun to collect these digital souvenirs as part of their research. They include: "Not breakup text", which is an unanswered text between high school sweethearts who were in a struggling long-distance relationship, "Email Title Said It All" which is an emotional break-up email with the ominous subject line, "The End", and "Santo Antônio kept me alive", a photograph of pet dog that helped heal the hurt after an abusive and emotional break-up.
The Museum is already home to a collection of the physical souvenirs gathered from across the globe, and the digital souvenirs collected by the Museum and the University of Dundee will be added to this permanent collection.
“So much of our lives, including significant parts of our relationships, are lived online now" said Daniel Herron.
"People meet online, they share information through social media, make and share playlists, keep photos on their smartphones. Much of this digital content persists after a break up and needs to be dealt with in some way. Material generated as part of a romantic entanglement can linger online long after the actual relationship has ended.
"This material can give us significant insights into how people can treat breakups, remember relationships, and move on positively in a modern, digital world.”
So, whether you’re cut up in Canada, depressed in Dundee, or euphoric in Europe, share your digital souvenirs of romantic breakup through the Museum, and the stories attached to those souvenirs. (Tissue, anyone?)
Been through a break up and want to donate a digital souvenir to the Museum of Broken Relationships? Click here.
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