Blogs are websites maintaining an ongoing account of information (Bishop). They accentuate a diary-like commentary and links to other sites or critiques. Twitter is a perfect example of a blog. A social networking site is a website offering an idealistic community for individuals fascinated by an exceptional subject to spend time together to increase their acquaintance. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, and My Space. Social networking sites and blogs have a relevant impact on Autobiographical memories. They contain a daily record of an individual’s endeavor as he or she lives their daily life. Most contain a record of an individual’s best moments, sad moments, disappointments, and unforgettable encounters with family and friends.
Citing from a journal by Allie Young (www.angelfire.com), she explains in detail and emotion her activities that even involve the physical conditions of the location that she visits. She writes about her daughter, friends, she even writes about her concerns about her computer literacy. The journal depicts her daily life, her concerns, sorrows, and happy moments and is, therefore, a clear illustration of her autobiography.
Allie Young’s blog or journal is a perfect illustration of the impact that social sites and blogs have, since for her autobiographic memory; she uses a blog site to write about issues affecting her life. Allie Young does this in an effective chronological order, writing about events as they unfold. She carefully describes the state of the weather to enable anyone to relate to her story. It includes links to her photos and other articles much like the old school diary. Anyone who has access to the Internet can access her blog, read her experiences and relate to her emotions as if she were there with them.
Allie Young is a member of the Dementia Advocacy and Support Network (DASN), which is a worldwide organization and for people diagnosed with dementia (loss of mental functions such as reasoning, thinking, and memory). By writing about her encounters, she helps give hope to those living with dementia that they too could live a normal life with family and friends and thus giving them hope of a better tomorrow. Writing a journal makes it easier for her to reach out to the world through a blog or social networking site.
In Allie’s example, the creation of memory is in the process, actively intertwining the past and present. Thinking about such situations makes it necessary to note that the constitution of memory occurs in the present. The common description of memory is that it is the concrete, distinct retention and recognition of someone’s ideas of the past in their mind (Whitrow). It overcomes the spatial and sequential distance amid the situational acts of remembering ancient events.
Social networks affect the distinction between individuals and groups by; given in Halbwach’s communal memory theory, “revealing what is in their thoughts or minds” or simply by what Halbwach calls; ‘the interior’ (Halbwachs). Social networks consist of groups of individuals sharing similar interests. Halbwach states that the distinctions make no sense if their application was in a group, and the difference is not applicable to a social network, which is a group, not an individual. Groups of people sharing common interests, though not in the same location, constitute a social network.
In Halbwach’s distinction between an individual and a group, he clearly states that the distinction applies only to a group, which he calls the ‘interior’. Hence, social networks affect the distinction between the individual or a person and group by bringing people together in a group. It does this by removing the ‘purely exterior’ state of an individual’s mind and replacing it with the group’s perception, which supply his thoughts as well as the thoughts of others.
‘Social control’ has many definitions, one of which is that it is the control of a person’s behavior by society for its own interest and welfare. Warnings and controls are forms of social control. Facebook as a form of social networking site encompasses some rules as per its usage. Social networking sites and blogs are forms of autobiographical memories, and they all have rules and patents of usage. They are sites of personal exchange with minimal social control. Personal expression has the definition of assertion of one’s personality.
A Facebook profile doubles up as a photo album and as a diary to record good times, sad moments and special moments with friends. There are no limitations as to the number of photos or to the amount of information ones uploads. It therefore, provides a replacement to both the diary and photo album. It is online, so everyone can access it as long as he or she has an account on Facebook. In his book, Lipchitz, An American study scholar and a professor in Black studies, describes the loss of tradition by a shift to communicative media such as telegraphs and newspapers. In addition, he described the impact of newspapers and their unreliability.
In conclusion, these blogs and social networking sites have made it easy for people who visit and use them to remember past experiences in detail and with ease. The twenty-first century hails the beginning of an age of digital memory application and the use of social networking sites and the enhancement of group collective memory. Though most people treasure diaries and photo albums, facebook pages and blogs are replacing them as time goes by. It will not be a surprise to find diaries and photo albums kept as antiques in homes and maybe museums, depending on how far in the future one will be. These sites provide the best channel where people get to express themselves in the way that they choose to, both in resistance to social control and with acceptance to what society advocates.
Works Cited
Bishop, Sherry. Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Revealed. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Halbwachs, Maurice. Halbwachs/Coser: On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Whitrow, G. J. The natural philosophy of time. South Cotswolds: Clarendon Press, 1980.