The first blog posts are up and wow, I have to say I am blown away. I had no clue my classmates had such intense ideas brewing in their minds. Since we haven’t read much literature in class besides Shazad’s article on “interpretive communities” and our textbook on academic writing, most of the blog posts focused on memory and the meaning of “global citizenship”. I’d like to summarize and voice my opinion on a few posts (which you should all read if you have the time), so here goes.

First, I would like to talk about the pieces Joey (http://blogs.ubc.ca/joeycreery/2015/09/23/memories-and-music/) and Ramon (http://blogs.ubc.ca/ramonmelser/) wrote. They both discussed the importance of memory and music, as well as music’s effect on society. The way I see it, music is a universal language. From creating a good time, to driving a revolution, music unites and inspires people. One specific example of music changing society is the NWA’s Fuck the Police. As we discussed in sociology, this song swept through the world, altering society as it went. The fact that one song can do that blows my mind. On a different note, Joey specifically talked about how music can revoke memories. I believe this is something everyone has experienced. One thing I wonder is, can music alter our memories? Can the context we hear a song in bring better or worse emotions to the memory?

Another blog post I found particularly interesting was Georgia’s (http://blogs.ubc.ca/georgia/). Georgia wrote of how deleting memories will eventually lead to a “dehumanized society”. She argued that memories are like a web, and if you delete one memory, you damage the web. Also, she argues that erasing a memory is selfish and is as if you are deleting a part of yourself. Here is one sentence that stood out to me: “If we don’t remember pain, we can’t enjoy pleasure, and if we don’t remember sadness, we can’t enjoy happiness”. While this is very true, what if a memory is too painful to remember? What if erasing a memory would make you happier? Is it better to live in ignorance and be happy, or to live informed and depressed?

Again, I am so impressed by all of your blog posts. As we are still getting to know each other, it was great to hear your personal stories captivating ideas.

Keep up the good work everyone!
-Olivia