Hello! My name is Ina Ishibashi de Weerdt. Welcome to my blog for ASTU 100A taught by Professor Luger in Global Citizens, which is one of the lovely streams in the Coordinated Arts Program (CAP) at UBC.
For the past week, our class has been thinking like scholars as we analyze Shahzad’s essay: The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning. Her essay is based on a study conducted on the memories of 99 students about the War on Terror. She argues that remembering and learning consists of active agents, technologies of memory, and the collectivity of significant others (also known as interpretive communities), which is essential in shaping memories of our own.
In class we discussed the use of technology of memory and interpretive communities and the impact these factors had on our memories and learning. Some of the examples of technologies of memory included: story telling, snapchat, scars, tattoos, painting, music, songs, blogs and oral history. That is to say, the fact that I am making a blog post about a certain event would be an example of technology of memory.
The idea of blogs as a technology of memory stood out to me as I blog on a regular basis. After analyzing Shahzad’s essay, it came to my attention that I have been unconsciously using my blog to keep track of my memories, similarly to the students Shahzad interviewed. The students remembered the War on Terror (9/11) through their interpretative communities such as their friends, parents, and/or media. However, blogs can be interpretive communities as well. Bloggers like myself are to blog about similar things and comment or exchange interactions with other online users makes the blogging community an interpretive community itself.
What is great about a blog is that it is a place where you can freely express yourself and share thoughts and/or similar interest with other people. They may comment or inspire you with their thoughts, which may help you see the bigger picture or get you thinking about different things. I feel safe to express my thoughts and share my memories on my personal blog, as I can remain anonymous while being a part of a lovely community where people can share their memories and thoughts with each other. I love how in particular one of my blogs actually help those who are going through difficult times by allowing them to share their experiences with one another. We help each other by listening to each others worries and thoughts as well as sharing our own personal and often difficult experiences to help each other through tough times. I feel as if I have a sense of belonging, and hope through the interpretive community of blogging.
Thank you for taking your time to read my post!
Work Cited
Shahzard, Faraht. “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning.” Canadian Journal of Education 34.3 (2011): 301-316. Web. ProQuest. 1 Sept. 2014.
