Hey everybody, I am successfully enrolled in the Global Citizen’s CAP stream at the University of British Columbia!
One of the courses I am enrolled in is ASTU and Professor Luger gave us a good foundation-building first class. In the second class, I was introduced to the idea of collective memory and how it can shape the view of society, and this stood out to me considering the fact that it involves a lot of personal engagement.
We live in a dynamic world that is based on individual perspectives. What one might believe to be futile, might be regarded as a necessity to another. An essay was presented to us in class, written by autobiographical sociologist, Kate Douglas called “Youth, Trauma and memorialisation: The selfie as witnessing”. This essay highlights the discomfort and agitation among people who believe that the 21st century act of taking selfies at locations of traumatic events are inappropriate and disrespectful.
This essay provoked me to think about the selfies that I took at Mumbai where the 26/11 attacks took place. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the 26/11 attacks were a series of terrorist acts that took place in the city of Mumbai on the 26th of November, 2008. More than 160 people were killed and it was the most devastating attack in India in recent times. This attack shook the entire nation and was mourned for weeks. There was tension and communal violence against the Islamic population in the country and several nationalists and conservatives shared their polemic against any or all acts that could be interpreted as demeaning towards the event.
Several days after the attack, despite the horrific scenes witnessed, there was a sense of unity that prolonged the country and citizens got together to mourn and uplift the people at loss. The sense of unity was further enhanced by stories of the heroic acts of the tactical police force and people who went above and beyond to help their fellow citizens in danger and distress. Therefore, this event stood as a symbol for national pride.
When I visited the city in 2014, I took several selfies at many of the sites that were subject to the attacks. While doing so, the thought of it possibly being disrespectful or derogatory did not occur to me, rather I took these selfies with the intent to honour the victims and to remember the people who helped. It wasn’t a selfie taken for personal interest, rather, it provided a platform to show respect for everyone affected that night.
In the essay, Douglas suggests that selfies are a way of sharing experiences and more so a form of communication that the current generation has adapted to. After reading the essay and learning about collective memory in class, I personally believe that it contributes to the shared experience of an event and is also a primary mode of carrying forward the essence of the past through the contribution of several methods of acknowledgement that every forthcoming generation uses; ours being selfies.