One of the great achievements in the history of human communication is the invention of writing, as it allows for the preservation of memory over time, from generation to generation. Writing expands our worlds and extends our abilities to communicate with distant others both in time – across generations – and in space, with others that are geographically separated from us. Time and space are, of course, inherently interconnected as has been theorized in a multiplicity of ways – not least in relation to the media and communication technologies throughout history, as Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong have eloquently discussed. And as media and communication scholars we are all indebted to the works of pioneer researchers. However, we are also caught in the paradox that although the media technologies and forms date back to the dawn of civilization, they also constantly change with time – not only between generations of researchers, but also within the lifetime of single generations. Against the background of these facts, I will in the following few pages reflect on one of the interests that I share with Fausto Colombo, and which followed him over the course of his academic life: the relation between media, time, generation, social memory and archives...(dall'incipit)