Amy Holdsworths reading deals with the effects of television and technologies on memory and nostalgia. She questions the difference between “what we know” and “how we remember it”. Nostalgia can often play a part in warping or altering our memories. The older we get, the more life experiences we obtain, therefore we generally become more nostalgic. Our memories and associations between certain sights, sounds and smells begin to form links and create strong connecting emotions. As the gaps in time grow with age we tend to look at the past in more of a haze. Our memories develop a film as we look through a brighter, shiner lens that leaves us with a sense of fondness as we reminisce about “the good old days”. As a traveller on public transport you are given time and stillness to look out the window and ponder your thoughts. A driver is required to maintain constant awareness as they are actively participating in the task of driving. On the train our thought process is mirrored by the views we see out the window. Our thoughts flicker from one time and place to another just like the flickering and flashing trees, telephone posts and houses. We are then snapped back into reality by the sound of the doors opening and closing, Myki inspectors checking tickets or other passengers having overly loud conversations.

TELEVISION, MEMORY AND NOSTALGIA
Amy Holdsworth Print Pub Date: August 2011 Online Date: October 2011
Media & Culture Collection 2012, Series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies