Event Title

“I Will Remember You”: How Memories Resonate with People through Reminiscence, Nostalgia, Regret, and the Phenomenon of Missing

Location

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

Date

5-11-2012 3:00 PM

End Date

5-11-2012 4:30 PM

Subject Area

Religion/Philosophy

Description

The amount of research that has been conducted regarding human memory is immense. Scientific findings involving the way memory works in the brain have uncovered an extraordinary amount of information about how humans think. What is investigated less often, but is no less important, is what cannot be directly pinpointed and put under the microscope anywhere in the human body, but rather can only be understood by looking at what people claim to regard and try to preserve: their own memories in everyday life.

Through a collection of stories, interviews, song, and other academic works, this investigation looks at the ways in which people reminisce, regret, miss, and feel nostalgic. It will also examine the ways that these emotional concepts interact with one another, and how people tend to conflate some of them with others when defining what they feel. It will also look at the effect that the modern world has on the ways people view these emotions, such as photography in social media and whether or not that has the ability to capture memories, or if it can hinder them. Also, this investigation largely focuses on what I call “memory tokens,” or remnants of memories that people use as keepsakes, and questions how successful these are in preserving memory in a way that is beneficial for people. Overall, this investigation examines the ways that people try to stay connected to their past with a need for understanding how that past grounds us in the present.

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May 11th, 3:00 PM May 11th, 4:30 PM

“I Will Remember You”: How Memories Resonate with People through Reminiscence, Nostalgia, Regret, and the Phenomenon of Missing

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

The amount of research that has been conducted regarding human memory is immense. Scientific findings involving the way memory works in the brain have uncovered an extraordinary amount of information about how humans think. What is investigated less often, but is no less important, is what cannot be directly pinpointed and put under the microscope anywhere in the human body, but rather can only be understood by looking at what people claim to regard and try to preserve: their own memories in everyday life.

Through a collection of stories, interviews, song, and other academic works, this investigation looks at the ways in which people reminisce, regret, miss, and feel nostalgic. It will also examine the ways that these emotional concepts interact with one another, and how people tend to conflate some of them with others when defining what they feel. It will also look at the effect that the modern world has on the ways people view these emotions, such as photography in social media and whether or not that has the ability to capture memories, or if it can hinder them. Also, this investigation largely focuses on what I call “memory tokens,” or remnants of memories that people use as keepsakes, and questions how successful these are in preserving memory in a way that is beneficial for people. Overall, this investigation examines the ways that people try to stay connected to their past with a need for understanding how that past grounds us in the present.