collecting memories

Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Collecting Memories
Collecting memories in the form of pictures, videos, and similar items is not a new phenomenon. In the days past, people used to keep photographs of themselves and their families in photo albums to remind them of the days past, as well as for posterity. The purpose of a person getting their life story is to enable them to paint a clear picture of whom they indeed are. However, the historical information should not merely be a haphazard collection of facts. Instead, these should be an account of a person’s life story that includes recurrent ideas and vital themes that are reflective of the development of the person’s personality, as well as their relationships with others.
In her article, Morin talks about the experiences of a psychology student and snapshot collector named Amelia Walker. Walker confesses to scouring the internet, estate sales, and flea markets randomly collecting pictures of volcanoes (Morin). Before this, she collected images of people with their faces looking away, but after collecting pictures of volcanoes, she started collecting the images of people in the water. Although Amelia did not know why she was collecting the photographs, the real meaning of her fascination would come into sight years later. It turned out that she had been subconsciously sifting through the memories that other people had discarded to find images that were of personal significance to her.
People collect memories, whether consciously or subconsciously, in the form of photos to enable them to paint a picture of their personality and experiences.

For Amelia, this involved subconsciously collecting pictures that represented her life story and experiences. She confesses that the theme of the photographs of volcanoes corresponded to a significant crisis in her life that included the tension, danger, destruction, and inevitability that had built up over the years. In other words, by collecting the pictures, she was seeking out images to articulate a feeling she was unable to communicate. The collection of photographs and other artifacts that represent a person’s experiences and life story can also be seen in the digital world, especially when investigating people’s activities in social networking sites.
Social networking sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are meant to encourage continuous scrolling with the intention to catch the attention of the viewer. Therefore, the videos that are most shared online are those that permit for private experiences. This has led to a specific type of video spectacle on social networking sites, one that can express its charm without any narrative and with little additional context (Hess). In other words, the photos and videos that users publish on social media reflect individual experiences and life stories, and those that are shared most in the online environment represent the stories and experiences that users have in common and, therefore, these stories require little context or narrative.
The stories that people collect and share, whether physically or on social media, are a reflection of their experiences and life stories. The reason for collecting these memories is to enable people to show a coherent picture of their real personalities. Such historical information should not merely be haphazard collection of facts. On the contrary, these should be an account of the person’s life story that includes recurrent ideas and vital themes that are reflective of the chronological development of the person’s personality and their relationships with others.

Works Cited
Hess, Amanda. “The Silent Film Returns — on Social Media.” The New York Times 13 Sep. 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/movies/silent-film-youtube-videos.html?_r=0
Morin, Roc. “The People Who Collect Strangers’ Memories: In Gathering Old Photographs of Daily Life, Family Scenes, and Illness, Hobbyists get an Intimate View into Past Lives.” The Atlantic 26 Sep. 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/snapshot-collectors/501614/