“What is your earliest childhood memory?”
The answer to that question will invariably differ from person to person, but it will also vary depending on the person’s generation. For instance, if you were to ask me what my earliest childhood memory was, I would have no answer for you. Not because I don’t possess any, but simply because I cannot distinguish what memories I have retained on my own and what “memories” I have from one of my many home videos. This may not be the case for my dad, for instance, because he does not have access to videos of his childhood simply because the technology was not readily available the way it is today.
It makes me wonder if the way in which we are remembering things today are altering due to constant technological advances. Everyday thousands of photos and videos are being captured; does this mean that we are remembering more because we have a constant desire to record every moment of our lives? Or are we remembering less, because we are now reliant on technology to retain memories?
Momma taking home videos (Circa 1995)
My curiosity of this recent phenomenon was triggered by a new word that I came across in Shazad’s The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning, “technologies of memory” (Shahzad, 302). In her article, Shahzad states, “cultural and individual memory are constantly produced through, and mediated by, the technologies of memory” (Shahzad, 303). These include, but are not limited to, “media, textbooks, documents, the Internet, museums, monuments, or landscapes” (Shahzad, 303). In other words, the purpose of technologies of memory is to make sure that we don’t forget, to make sure that we remember, but to remember it in a certain way.
Take for instance, a history textbook. They are not subjective; they are very much opinionated. The authors have a certain worldview that frames the way in which they process and narrate certain historical events. And alongside the rest of society, they are telling the story they want to be told. Home videos serve the same purpose. My parents are the filmmakers, in the same way that historians and professors are the authors of history textbooks. My parents didn’t record their fights or all the times I got in trouble, rather they recorded the time we went to the Toronto zoo, and the park behind our apartment and the first time I rolled over. Similar to history textbook authors, they shaped the technology of memory to translate what they thought was important, what they thought was worth remembering.
Moreover, it is interesting to consider that the photos we upload on Instagram and the Youtube videos that go viral are technologies of memory in the same way that home videos and history textbooks are; one could argue that they carry the same weight, if not more. They are simple tools, that are very much a part of our everyday lives, and yet we often forget the power that they hold to shape not only our individual memories, but also our collective memories. So next time your teacher catches you on Facebook, you could say that you are simply making your contribution to framing our collective memory; after all, Shahzad said it herself that “learning is a social experience” (Shahzad, 313).