Proust

Watching this intro about a service called Proust just gave me the chills. For a while now I have been wanting to ask my parents questions about their lives. Proust is a service that makes exactly that incredibly simple.

(via brainpickings)

20 Comments leave a comment below

  1. I’m sorry but this is a terrible service. How bad must someone relationship be with their parents, that they have to ask them questions (and random / guided questions) through some web app that they have to sign up to. Why not ask them in person, or over the phone, or over video skype? How many grandparents really use the internet, mine certainly don’t. Most of the excitement and fun from a story told by your gran is in the delivery, of hearing all the little details and asking more questions, not reading it in text form. For god sake people, turn off your computers and actually speak with your families.

  2. I love it, but how is this different from StoryCorps?

  3. I agree with Chris. Turn off your computers and go out for brunch with your families.

  4. Wow, Chris, I’m really jealous of you. You must have the perfect relationship with your parents. They must be totally open & jovial and always want to share. And you couldn’t possibly have one of those gruff dads that just sits there silent with his thumb on the remote.

    I’m all for an actual social live vs. “social media” & this is something that could help make that happen.

  5. @mikelite, you think the gruff dad types of the world would be anymore willing to chat it up over a (potentially) public space if he won’t talk to you in person in front of the TV?

    Good luck with that.

  6. @Derk – maybe not, but I’m intrigued by the conversation starters. Those very specific questions that could spark something.

  7. I second Chris. I also find the video a bit too touchy-feely for my taste.

  8. ask questions to your grandmother over a web interface? jesus, it’s so misguided that I can’t imagine how such idea has passed the brainstorm table…

    also, the narration of this video is annoying

  9. Technology can’t connect people! This is stupid! BRB, going to post a photo of my kid on my mom’s Facebook Wall…

    The director of StoryCorps was doing an interview where he basically said that by creating a dedicated place for these stories, we make it OK to ask or say things that are difficult otherwise. That people *could* have these conversations everyday, but don’t.

    When I was about 12 I had to interview someone for a class project. I interviewed my grandfather and learned so much. He talked about WWII and the Finno-Russian war. He talked about citizenship. His first bakery. How he met my grandmother. Usually, we just watched Bonanza together. But now I have a tape recorded conversation that I can still listen to, 20 years later. The construct of the interview was hugely important.

    In my weekly video Skypes with my mom, am I really going to ask her, out of the blue, to recount her favorite memory from high school?

    The video is too happy feely for me, but gosh, how can you guys hate so hard on something that’s using technology to get people to connect more? There is a sincerity and well-meaning to this that I admire. It’s not just another tote bag with a bird on it.

  10. My recomendation to Mike & all, if you REALLY can’t think of things to talk with your family about, then print their questions page, then go and ask them in person or over the phone at the very least

    http://www.proust.com/questions

  11. Completely agree with Chrs OShea.

    I will ask my 90yr old grandmother to login and answer my all questions, she definitely will do ¬¬

    What we less need at the moment are things like that for creating distance between people. It pisses my off this trend of creating web apps, be the next “Facebook” or “Twitter” creator, be famous, earn lots of money no matter what…yeh yeh, everybody wants this but you don’t need to talk to your beloved ones from behind a bright box…

    As Mike says: there’s a sincerity on their intentions.
    Well, I think its fair everyone can speak freely and sincerely here too.

  12. Yes, everyone can speak freely, I just kindly ask everyone to careful in your wording when doing so.

    Calling something ‘stupid’ is not ok in my book. Even if this service doesn’t seem useful or smart to you, there are a lot of folks with very complicated family dynamics that might want to give this a try. Or take my case: my family lives on the other side of the Atlantic and the time difference is not helping in having one-on-one conversations.

    Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t make something useless or stupid. It’s ok to disagree, just please, do it with respect and diplomacy.

  13. @swissmiss The only mentions to the word “stupid” here are coming from you and Mike.

    I think commenters aren’t putting this in question neither mentioning it is a bad or a good service.

    The only point here is the incentive of speaking to your loved ones through digital media, and this is definitely not a good approach.

    I can be wrong but I don’t remember anything in the video mentioning that the service is specific for people that can’t do it personally, or motivating you to do it personally in first place and use the app as an alternative.

    Sorry but this touches a very sensitive argument over the society and it can obviously help people, but it should be displayed as a tool for families that unfortunately can’t do it personally, not as a service for everyone to use because considering this as their approach, that wouldn’t be good neither recommended if you can just go to your dad and speak from your heart.

    So as a moderator I would like to ask you to be more neutral
    I have to say that I could notice you liked the service and its useful for you, and I respect that, but please allow people to express their opinions too, because no one here is joking or laughing about families that can’t stay in touch, but for this service attempt of implementing it as for a general public.

  14. As someone coming from a family where we don’t really “talk” about things, I think this is a great idea. If I randomly ask my mom to tell me a story, she can never think of anything to tell me. I think it’s helpful to have prompts to begin a discussion. I’ll be moving across the Atlantic also at the end of this year and I think it could be a great resource to keep my family connected and to generate some family stories I could share with my son one day.

  15. Hi everyone,
    I work for Proust and it’s been invigorating to read such a heated debate about the site. The issues brought up are ones we think about a lot here.

    In no way do we intend for the site to replace any face-to-face interaction with your loved ones. For example, my dad has been using the site and answering a lot of questions about his childhood and his views on life. I’ve really enjoyed learning those things about him. (He’s set his story to private on Proust; mine is public.) I’m close to my father and see him relatively often, but Proust offers deep and interesting prompts that it had never really occurred to me to ask in the past. We’ve then continued some of those conversations in person.

    It also has the added benefit of preserving those stories so that someday when I have kids, they’ll be able to learn all this about their grandfather, in his own words, even after he’s gone. And you can add photos and audio and video, too.

    It’s of course wonderful if you already have frequent deep conversations with your loved ones, but not everyone lives close by to their family or has as much time as they’d like. And we hope even those who do can find new avenues of discussion on Proust.

  16. Like Jesse, I too have a great relationship with my parents and grandparents. But Proust is going to make it much easier for me to record their stories, and in a format that will be much more interesting than anything I would have done on my own. Can’t wait to go use the site. Thanks SwissMiss for the tip! Thanks Jesse for a great innovation! And Marcos? As “a moderator” get bent.

  17. If it weren’t for swiss-miss I wouldn’t have even heard of a lot of these kinda sites and their stuff that’s out there, concepts and ideas that–by the looks of it–have a lot of people talking. I feel almost spoiled to have someone bringing all this together under one site at no cost ! youre awesome! ;-)

  18. I just came across this post. I was skeptical when I first heard about this site. Honestely, It’s amazing. Yes, it’s not going to replace real conversations. but you dnt talk about most of this stuff at brunch or sitting around a dinner table with your grandparents. It’s great to go on, answer one question here and there and share with friends during the work day. I love when new answers from friends pop up. It is no subsitution for real relationships, just a way of archiving and preserving our stories. It’s so great to go back and read through your answers- and those of your parents. Like an old journal. They are continuously adding new features and I love the idea of having this to look back on one day and share with my kids, grandkids. It’s a story that’s not written in one sitting, but over and over again as you change and evolve. You make one small entry every so often and keep coming back. I love it and think this is such a powerful tool.

  19. I just came across this post. I was skeptical when I first heard about this site. Honestely, It’s amazing. Yes, it’s not going to replace real conversations. but you dnt talk about most of this stuff at brunch or sitting around a dinner table with your grandparents. It’s great to go on, answer one question here and there and share with friends during the work day. I love when new answers from friends pop up. It is no subsitution for real relationships, just a way of archiving and preserving our stories. It’s so great to go back and read through your answers- and those of your parents. Like an old journal. They are continuously adding new features and I love the idea of having this to look back on one day and share with my kids, grandkids. It’s a story that’s not written in one sitting, but over and over again as you change and evolve. You make one small entry every so often and keep coming back. I love it and think this is such a powerful tool.

  20. Different from StoryCorp because it assists the conversation. I think you can also submit interviews like this to the Library of Congress for archival.