You Have a New Memory

An open-hearted interrogation of our digital selves, braiding cultural criticism, memoir, and narrative musings into an exploration of identity, girlhood, media, tech, nature and "finding the depth and beauty in the fucked-up world we live in" from a writer, artist, and influencer (Phoebe Bridgers). If you told Aiden Arata in 1995 that the internet would one day crown her the “meme queen of depression” and mega corporations would fly her to conferences to speak about commodifying one‘s emotions for views, she would have asked you what a meme was. Now, she brings us raw reportage from that liminal space between online and offline worlds, illuminating how we got here and where to go next. In this collection of kaleidoscopic essays, Aiden artfully explores what it means to exist on the internet, from fanfic forums to TikTok. She exposes influencer grifts from the perspective of a grifter, digs into the alluring aesthetic numbness of stay-at-home girlfriend content creators, and interrogates our online fetishization of doom to grapple with the real-world apocalypse. You Have A New Memory is a deeply human inventory of the digital sphere, a searing analysis of the present, and a prescient assessment of the future. Aiden is the wry, unexpected voice we need to navigate existing simultaneously as creators, consumers, and products in our increasingly braver and newer world.