In today’s time, it is undoubtedly evident that technology plays a crucial role in our daily lives in regards to communicating with others and learning new things. In order to understand present day issues in society, we must be able to reflect on historical events and contexts of the past. Around the world, there are many memorial sites that help us understand, gain respect for, and most importantly, remember critical moments in history that contributed to present day society. In “Youth, trauma, and memorialization: The selfie as witnessing,” by Kate Douglas (2017), the topic of innapropriate selfies taken at memorial sites such as Pearl Harbour and Auschwitz Concentration Camp is discussed and researched. The question raised is how does the advancements of technology and the way youth utilise social media platforms influence the way we respond to collective traumas (Douglas 1)? From reading this article, an abstraction that particularly drew my attention is youth, and how it can potentially desensitize moments (or be considered as examples of autobiographical acts) of trauma in history; and how does it affect the general perception from various generations of us youth? In this blog post, you will be able to read my perspective after reading this article about youth, selfies, and memorialization.
In my lifetime, I have seen youth targeted as careless, egotistical, and disrespectful because of what the media chooses to potray us as, or how select few choose to express themselves on the internet. I am a strong believer in the fact that youth are among the most powerful people in the world, as we are leaders in our communities, and are drivers of new innovative perspectives and ideas. From reading this article, I saw select teenagers who willfully posted selfies in front of memorial trauma sites. After discussing with many in my class, we all shared the belief that no matter the reason, taking a selfie in front of a trauma site such as Auschwitz is simply insensitive. Although my view on the situation regarding selfies at trauma sites being insensitive hasn’t changed much post-reading, my eyes were opened to a new perspective. Dewey (2014) suggests that “[selfies] may mean something different to the taker themselves.” It could be considered rather as “self-documentation”; a way of narrating or taking note of what happened that moment in time in the selfie-taker’s life. These selfies can be suggested as a form of self-expression or connection to a historical moment. Vuk (2014) adds to this perspective that instead of youth lacking respect, it can be looked at as a confusion of “validation for insight.” Meese (2015) recognizes that “selfies offer a means for their creators to join wider communities of people engaging (diversely) with the site.” These points of view established by Dewey, Vuk, and Meese did make me reconsider my view on inappropriate selfies, but with more thought, I concluded that there is a time and place for selfies; trauma memorial sites is understandably not the right place.
Coming back to my question, do these types of stories change the way other generations perceive youth? After further thought and an optimistic outlook on this situation, I believe that youth’s positive actions that they choose to take overpowers this way (selfies at trauma sites) of narrating one’s own life. With the rise of technology, it certainly impacts the way of “remembering in the contemporary era” (Douglas, 2017); but with constant changing of cultural norms and technological traditions and practices, new ways of remembering may rise soon in time.
Works Cited:
- Douglas, Kate (2017). “Youth, Trauma, and Memorialization: The selfie as witnessing.” Memory Studies, Sage Publishers, pages 1-16
- Dewey C (2014), “The other side of the infamous Auschwitz selfie.” The Washington Post, July 22 (available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/07/22/the-other-side-of-the-infamous-auschwitz-selfie
- Meese M. (2015), “Selfies at Funerals: mourning and presencing on social media platforms,” International Journal of Communication 9:1818-1831
- Vuk J (2014), “The Auschwitz selfie is not an act of disrespect,” The Sydney Morning Herald, available at: https://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-auschwitz-selfie-is-not-an-act-of-disrespect-20140724-zwfm0.html
NOTE: Works 2,3, and 4 were cited and found from within the article “Youth, trauma, and memorialization: the selfie as witnessing” by Douglas, Kate (2017)
