Memories, Videos, and the Canadian Identity in a Technological Era (Response Assignment #2) -- By: Alicia Jagsarran
After the presentations last week Friday, there was a clear and recurrent discussion of the age old Canadian crux of the “search for an identity” – a theme that is similarly most prevalent in literature yet left unanswered. The question of a Canadian identity is even more troubled when the idea of a virtual and real-world identity is added into the equation in a rapidly advancing technological world – making the answer that much more difficult to flesh out.
Maiko Bae Yamamoto’s “Nostalgica” speaks of this conflict of memory and the representation of memory, whether accurately or not, in the media. In “The YouTube” by Joe Cobden, the article which I first reviewed, he speaks of the inability to separate his “real-world” from the virtual because YouTube has made it incredibly easy to share and connect ideas instantly. Thus his naming of YouTube to “The YouTube” is a means to create that separation and distancing from him and the virtual world.
Both articles respond to the question of a kind of translation of our memories and perception of our lives into various social media platforms – YouTube being the main interest. Yamamoto’s desires to watch sentimental videos, describing her drug-like addiction in which “YouTube is one of my dealers when I need a hit” is an interesting parallel to Cobden’s experience with the media platform, claiming that his obsession with finding and sharing videos results in “endless clicking around and voyeuristic horseshit.” In both experiences, YouTube (and other platforms) has an incredible capacity to share and find “shared experiences” and stories. And in such a diasporic country as Canada, it is only natural to want to know more about the different cultures and stories this country houses and especially to connect to a community. And YouTube is that “community” to learn and share for many people. There is an emotional and social gratification aspect of YouTube in which you can comment and have a dialogue with a stranger, even the ability to “thumbs up” comments in which you agree with or like – a virtual high-five.
But it also has an increasingly surreal affect for our findings on the interwebs to trickle into our real-world lives and consume our time and attention there. Where it is so easy to share information, it is also easier to be consumed into a world which is not tangible – but still has that uncanny quality of “real-life.” From Cobden’s hunger of YouTube videos to obnoxiously show his friends and Yamamoto’s crave of a true or false nostalgic story suggests that sharing is not caring in the virtual world.
I also wanted to respond to a post on Tumblr by Felcity Keung titled “Familial Relations in Nostalgica” – a response to Yamamoto’s essay. In the beginning of Yamamoto’s essay, she mentions that there is a candy tin that a character within the cartoon carries around. Keung clarifies the question of the contents of the tin, claiming that there is not actually candy inside, but rather, the “boy’s sister’s ashes.” I will take this a step further and suggest that Yamamoto and Keung alludes to a yearning hunger and need for consumption in Canada.
The importance of nostalgia and memories are so incredibly important to figuring out one’s present identity that it is mirrored in this act of consuming the past. By carrying his sister’s ashes in a container once meant for food, and Yamamoto’s hunger for sentimental videos and memories, it allows us to internalize memories of the past and suggests that through this consumption of the past, it enables Canadians to take on the past as our own identity. So, we are no longer looking for who we are as individuals in the present, but rather, heavily engaged with and influenced by our past and our memory of it.
By: Alicia Jagsarran
Essays and Articles Mentioned:
Link to Maiko Bae Yamamoto’s “Nostalgica” here: http://ryeberg.com/curated-videos/nostalgica/
Link to Joe Cobden’s “The YouTube” here: http://ryeberg.com/curated-videos/the-youtube/
My original review of Cobden’s essay on Tumblr, “YouTube and the New Canadian Experience and Identity” here: http://newcan.tumblr.com/post/64263198390/youtube-and-the-new-canadian-experience-and-identity
Felicity Keung’s “Familial Relations in Nostalgica” posted on Tumblr found here: http://newcan.tumblr.com/post/64264816595/familial-relations-in-nostalgica
Original sourcelink for the first image found here:http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/one-does-not-simply-watch-youtube.jpg
Original sourcelink for the second image found here: http://cdn.instapop.com/assets/memes/Mad%20Baby/2781/original.jpeg?1348530650
