We started this week’s class by creating a timeline of different forms of media from the beginning of our lives to now. We discussed different products we owned, games we played, things we watched and related to each other as specific niche memories were mentioned. This brought about the phenomena of nostalgia, which we then delve into more as we watched Johnny Harris’ YouTube video “The Nostalgia Theory”. A part that really resonated with me was the example he first used whilst scrolling through old images and finding a memory he had completely forgotten about and then upon reading his journal, he noted it down as one of the best days of his life. It’s crazy how jam packed our lives are that we can reflect on something as being the “best day of our lives” and then a few years later forget the day ever existed. In this way, nostalgia is a beautiful thing, where you can be transported back to that moment with memories flooding back.
Our other class activity involved selecting a random photo from our camera roll and reflecting, noting down all important information. It was hard to pick just one photo/ specific memory, so I tried to pick one at random and landed on a costume try on at rehearsals for a performing arts tour I went on in 2018. Just as Johnny Harris explained in his video, reflecting upon the memory I felt emotions of happiness and sadness at the same time. I find this and nostalgia in itself such an interesting concept. We are so fortunate to be living in the era we are now when it comes to capturing memories. It’s so easy to whip out a mobile phone and start recording or take a photo, believe me, I know, I have over 50,000 photos in my camera roll on my phone. My mum always says she wishes more of this technology was around when I was growing up as it was so much more effort to have to get the camcorder out.
Harris, Johnny, ‘THE NOSTALGIA THEORY’ 2020, Youtube, viewed 7 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvN7GxrRtNA>.