{"id":461,"date":"2016-06-07T05:07:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T05:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=461"},"modified":"2016-06-07T05:07:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-07T05:07:22","slug":"911-upshot-flashbulb-memory-september-11-terror-attacks-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"9\/11 and the Upshot of Flashbulb Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">F<\/span>ive people \u2013 my entire family at the time \u2013 were staring at the television. I\u2019d just walked into the living room. Oblivious to the world, barely 14 yet, I took the remote. It was time for F.R.I.E.N.D.S, reruns of which played every weeknight at 8 pm. Nobody really objected, but at the persistent \u201cbreaking news\u201d ticker on Star World (these were the days before it had become BREAKING NEWS!!), I was asked to switch back. Sombre presenters on CNN were talking about the first plane crashing into the towers. My 14-year-old self imagined it to be a grand stunt, straight out of the movies. In my memory, still luridly cinematic, there\u2019s an orange hue that I can see \u2013 like an uncool Instagram filter. The date was September 11, 2001.\n\nI could tell you more about that day. What I was wearing. The weather that day in Delhi. What we had for dinner. And that was 17 years ago. And yet, I wouldn\u2019t be able to tell you what I had for dinner last night. I count on Facebook to remember my best friend\u2019s birthday and my phone to remember his number. I even blank out mid-sentence while ordering takeout. Yet we all remember where we were that day \u2013 what we were doing, how cold it was, who we were fighting at the time.\n\nIn my memory, the initial flippancy about the event was followed soon enough \u2013 by the time the second plane collided \u2013 with the realisation of its magnitude. Just like it did when 26\/11 happened, when the Bhuj earthquake shook the country, or when Germany decimated Brazil in the 2014 football World Cup. I also remember where I was when I failed my pre-board math exam. All of it to an inch-perfect detail.\n\nThe easy explanation for this HD memory that records all of our experience in highly emotional moments when anything major, dramatic, historical, and noteworthy unfolds, is explained by the obvious: The world changed after the fact. You know, before 9\/11, the world was a normal, happy, pleasant, peaceful place (relatively speaking), but then the Big Thing happened. And now we live in an \u201cUs vs Them\u201d world, with aggressive nationalism and rampant paranoia, with persistent fear and constant panic. The events of that day, 17 years ago, split the world into two distinct sections: then, and now \u2013 the post-9\/11 world. So yeah, we\u2019re bound to remember.\n<\/p><blockquote class=\"quote--center\">We\u2019re not lying and we\u2019re certainly not \u201cco-opting grief\u201d by hijacking someone else\u2019s suffering for some selfish emotional gains \u2013 what we\u2019re doing is empathising.<\/blockquote>\nBut here\u2019s the thing \u2013 we didn\u2019t know at that time that it was going to change the world. At least my 14-year-old self didn\u2019t. As I watched, fascinated, the sight of the collapsing towers, I had no idea history was being made. I didn\u2019t understand the concept of America or forces at play that led to an event of this nature. I wouldn\u2019t learn the specifics of the attacks or the consequence until years later. Why then do I remember? Why do all of us?\n\nIn 1977, two psychologists called Roger Brown and James Kulik introduced us to the idea of \u201cflashbulb memories\u201d \u2013 memories for the circumstances in which one first learnt of a very surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) event. Essentially, it\u2019s a term to explain how those memories remain so clear. A lot of research indicates that they are, in fact, not all that <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/flashbulb-memories-of-dramatic-events-arent-as-accurate-as-believed-64838\" target=\"_blank\">accurate<\/a>, but we believe wholeheartedly in their accuracy. Often, you\u2019ll notice that these memories, they\u2019re not strictly about the event itself; they are largely autobiographical memories that are personal pathways to how an event as colossal and faraway as this is connected to you. Events like 9\/11 dominated not just national discourse, but also much of private conversation in the days, weeks, years that followed, and each of these served to enhance the vividness of our memory, our subjective confidence in it as we fleshed it out one colour block by block.\n\nWe\u2019re not lying and we\u2019re certainly not \u201cco-opting grief\u201d by hijacking someone else\u2019s suffering for some selfish emotional gains \u2013 what we\u2019re doing is empathising. That day, and over time, people \u2013 regardless of political inclinations or religious bent \u2013 felt genuine sadness at the many lives lost. That too in a country that was seemingly infallible, immune to such concerns. The clarity and the impact, especially when we talk of 9\/11, come from a basic human need to empathise and connect. It\u2019s a way of building a community \u2013 in solidarity with those who suffered and in protest against the attackers. It\u2019s a way of saying, \u201cYes, I want to be a part of this and share the grief with you.\u201d\n\nThere\u2019s scorn as well as confusion around flashbulb memories \u2013 some studies suggest the rate of forgetting slows down after a year, some indicate the opposite \u2013 but for me, they\u2019re a welcome reminder that human beings are actually not dead inside, that they\u2019re capable of feeling compassion even in times when they\u2019re not directly affected by something. It\u2019s an urgent need to just make some kind of a difference, small as it may be, in the face of helplessness. It\u2019s a show of unity, a desire to stand together.\n\nMaybe it\u2019s why the rallying cry around 9\/11 is \u201cnever forget\u201d. It reminds us of an essential truth in this divisive world: No matter where we were watching from\u2026 that day we were all in it together.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The explanation for the HD recollection of 9\/11 lies in &#8220;flashbulb memories&#8221;. For me, they\u2019re a welcome reminder that human beings are actually not dead inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>9\/11 and the Upshot of Flashbulb Memory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The explanation for the HD recollection of 9\/11 lies in &quot;flashbulb memories&quot;. 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