Six-Word Memoirs Logo

Yes! It is possible because we use our interpretation and imagination to read these memoirs (challenges the user and us as the audience to think). When we think of the meaning of memoir, we usually associate it with words like life narratives, personal experiences, diaries, and most of all- MEMORIES. Out of one word, we can interpret it so many different ways; then six-words mean six times the interpretation. One thing about having to research and present a specific topic is that afterwards, there is a restless feeling to that topic, the feeling of not wanting to go back or even look at that topic again. I thought that that might be the case for Six-Word Memoirs, but I was wrong. The presentation that my group and I put together for ASTU, actually raised more questions that are worth exploring and can be answer through further exploration of the site. However, one question that particularly struck me was what is the point restricting users to six-word expression of memoirs, if the option of posting a backstory was also available on the site? This never seem to be an issue for me when I went through the site, especially since I found the backstories just as intriguing as the six-word memoirs themselves. Nevertheless, I started thinking more and more about the bigger issue of how some websites don’t stick to their original ideas or how their original ideas gets molded by users of the site (and other internet audience) to create new features. Therefore, in the case of Six-Word Memoirs, the backstory feature was provided as the additional option for sharing their personal experience in depth, which in turn created conversations among users that build a socializing platform (community) for the website.

This new imagery of online social networks is my generation of community-building and to be a part of it, is like building history. However, I constantly find it easier to communicate face-to-face or within a class discussion. The way words are vocally communicated into the atmosphere in front of us and to be able to hear our voices, which is one of the reasons why we like listening to music. At this moment in life, the experience of the these two communities complement each other, but down the road, our reliance on technology to communicate might negatively affect our ability to confidently communicate face-to-face. There is for sure, aspects like the YouTube community where users compose their own videos (contain their own personal opinions, experience, singing, etc) and post them online to friends, family but most of the time strangers, while being completely comfort in that fact. This issue of comfort is also worth discussing, which was touched upon by the PostSecret ASTU presentation group. Who are we most comfortable in expressing ourselves to? Surprisingly, for many of us the answer is STRANGERS. This kind of concept remind me of The Witness Protection Program (Canada version), although I am not closely familiar with this program, I do find it comparable to the issue of comfort/safety around strangers. Falcon who interviewed Gerald Shur , who “was an attorney in what was then the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the 1960s” reported that the idea is to “take the witness and the witness’ family and move them to another area”. For certain people, after living in a place for too long, travelling or moving to a new place for a new start is refreshing. But having to move for security reasons and to completely start over with their family, when they are in the case of stability is extremely difficult. Luckily, technology as a mean of communication can help to maintain relationships. Unfortunately, present day “witness protection program faces the added burdens of the digital age. Facebook, Google, texting and the instant access to information via the Internet and smartphones provide new challenges to keep the identities of witnesses a secret” (Falcon). Once again, in reality we often find ourselves stuck in the middle between the realm of online and offline social communities, and until this problem gets solved, we can only do what we can to co-exist on both sides.

One last point that I want to make is my lack of optimism towards online social networks (Facebook specifically) and the overall safety of the internet. Although, the internet is a place that we constantly depend on, it is hard to perceive it as a safe place to share, with the knowledge that hackers, companies, and even government institution have access to our private information/data is haunting. It almost seem inevitable for normal citizens, like myself to prevent such information from being revealed (Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles”; where I learned about the usage of Google and search refined to personal customization). I guess at the end of the day, I would rather choose privacy over efficiency and live in the past where internet was unavailable. However, this is probably not how I would think if I actually lived during that time period. All I know is that the direction that we are headed may make it possible to travel back in time, but until that day, we (mostly I) need to remind ourselves not to take these efficiency of technology for-granted.

Emily K

P.S. Six-Word Memoirs have a new feature: “TOP SIX”

Work Cited:

Falcon, Gabriel. “Inside the witness protection program.” CNN Justice 16                February 2013. CNN, 27 Oct. 2013 <http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/16/justice/witness-protection-program/>.

In the past few weeks, exposure to life narratives was like being on an adventure that took me into the lives of others through the combination of visual and verbal displays. Nevertheless, I was unsure if I would be able to understand the circumstances that people lived under, especially in the cases of Salam Pax through his blog, Where is Raed? and Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning. But both bloggers had this way with words that drew me, as a “Western” reader into the events of their lives, which was during the Iraq War. Such context, I couldn’t say that I was unaware about but more or less didn’t try to acknowledge because it wasn’t part of my life; a situation that seems so far away. If there is one thing that I have learned through reading Pax and Riverbend’s blog, it is that the internet (and globalization in general) has definitely turn our world into a global community. The Iraq War that started in 2003, was triggered by the 911 terrorist attack, in which both events weren’t exactly the kind of stuff I was told about when I was at the age of 8. But know that I’m 17 and I have the opportunity to take this chance to educate myself about the conflicts that happened while I was growing up gives me the determination as a citizen of the world to want to do something and the first step is to understand the situation, from not one perspective but all perspectives. Pax and Riverbend is able to share their experience which is very courageous. Just as I am typing this blog post, I feel nervous about sharing my thoughts, and for them to have to share such personal experiences with strangers requires a strength that is admirable.

Context, is everything to understanding and that was what I felt Pax did while I read through his posts. He was the one that helped set-up the context I needed to understand the terrors of a war happening in my lifetime. This I found was crucial because in Social Studies and History we are constantly taught about World War !& II that happened in the 20th century but only occasionally discuss about current events, which supposedly lie in our own hands if we want to be “well-informed”, a characteristic of what it means to be a “Global citizen”. However, it was through Riverbend’s blog posts that I felt I could put myself in her position. The fact that she talks about her family, and a lot more personal daily situations going on in her life, helps with drawing connections. Also the most important aspect that I got out from reading her blog is that she made me feel that the gap between the East and the West isn’t as big as I imagined it to be. One aspect that I noticed from reading her posts was that I didn’t feel like I was reading about the life of a 24 year old (the age she started blogging in 2003; The Beginning…). The reason for that was primarily due to the fact that she was living through a time of war and the 24 year old woman that she is wasn’t allowed to go out without “E. [her brother] and either a father, uncle or cousin” (Post: We’ve Only Just Begun…). With the lack of freedom imposed on Iraqi women during that time, they have been forced by the situation to be treated as if they were young girls. Applying this to the Western society, I can’t imagine how that would possibly be like, especially now where my everyday life consists of transiting on my own to school and to get that taken away from me seems surreal. Thus, as different as the East and West are, there are always at least some connections that we all share with one another, and in the case of Riverbend, I have to say that it was the mentioning of her younger brother, E that automatically caught my full attention into what she had to say about her life narrative. It was this bold connection that if I had a mind map would draw a line between Riverbend and me.