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Attention Spans

Some scientists say That attention spans Are diminishing  At great speed. This effect is supposedly Perpetuated by internet browsing And an insatiable desire For constant connection. I wish I had more time To muse on this condition But a bluebottle is flying nearby And I must direct it outside.

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Likes Don’t Save Lives

UNICEF Sweden has a new ad campaign reminding people that while social media Likes are nice, what they really need is money to fund their vaccination campaigns.

As The Verge points out, “Facebook likes aren’t treated as currency in other commercial venues, so they shouldn’t be equated with charitable donations.”

And via The Atlantic:

In the beginning, organizations wanted you to like the heck out of their Facebook pages. Why? You know, community-building, awareness-raising, general “engagement”-upping…

…But one thing clicking “like” doesn’t do is, say, get malaria nets to African villages or boost funding for charity groups. And now that Facebook is nearly 9 years old and Twitter is 7, we’re seeing the inevitable backlash against social-media “slacktivism.”

Back to The Verge:

The campaign, created by ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors, takes a rather bold stance against the awareness campaigns that often spread across Facebook and other social media platforms. UNICEF officials acknowledge that such efforts can help introduce issues to a wider audience, though they fear that for most users, the action stops with the click of a button. To further stress this point, UNICEF Sweden released a bold poster alongside the video clips, saying that every like it receives on Facebook will result in exactly zero vaccinations.

That’s not to say “slacktivists” are a bad thing. Liking, sharing and reblogging do serve their purpose in bringing issues to a wider audience. But then what?

Last year, The Atlantic notes, Zeynep Tufekci, a sociology professor and a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, had this to say:

What is called commonly called slacktivism is not at all about “slacking activists;” rather it is about non-activists taking symbolic action–often in spheres traditionally engaged only by activists or professionals (governments, NGOs, international institutions.). Since these so-called “slacktivists” were never activists to begin with, they are not in dereliction of their activist duties. On the contrary, they are acting, symbolically and in a small way, in a sphere that has traditionally been closed off to “the masses” in any meaningful fashion.

The goal then for those working in social media is to simultaneously help the “slacktivist” set help you by building out ambient awareness of an issue through the messaging you create, while also giving activists and more consistently loyal proponents direct calls to action be it donations, volunteerism, network building, etc.

Meantime, if you’re moved to Like a cause, consider volunteering your time and/or other resources to it as well.

The other two commercials in UNICEF’s campaign can be viewed at The Verge. – Michael

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Prayer: the ultimate slacktivism.

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Think Progress’ Igor Volsky gets it right. It’s time for conservatives to wake up.

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Sending “thoughts and prayers” does nothing to actually help pass gun control laws. People need to turn their thoughts and prayers into actions, or else nothing will get accomplished.

“The New York Daily News’s Thursday cover story on the shooting in San Bernardino takes a strong stand on a surprising controversy that emerged in the wake of the shooting — politicians’ habit of offering banal "thoughts and prayers” to the victims while opposing any kind of policy response.“

All politicians offer prayers. The problem is that is all Republicans have to offer.

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December 3rd

Annoted Bibliography

- 15 sources

- 250 words

- Due December 18th

Project

- 8 minute presentation

- December 10th

- Bibliography at the end

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Paris Profile Pictures

Something that made me pause the other day was regarding the option to put an overlay of the French flag on your profile picture after the attack in Paris. I noticed that many of my friends were doing this to show their support, so I decided to do the same. When I clicked the button to put this overlay on my profule picture, it asked me how long I wanted to keep this temporary filter on my picture. An hour, a day, a week? Suddenly I realized I was going to have to make a decision of how long I was going to publicly show my support for Paris.

This relates to my final project on social media and public memory because it demonstrated how people only care about something as long as it’s trending. I didn’t want to keep this filter on for a whole week because I was almost certain it would be out of the news within a week. This is sad. Had this happened years ago, the lasting impact of this attack would be much longer. People would be following this story for days, weeks, until there was a natural closure. In today’s world, people forget about it within hours. I knew that i the filter on my profile picture disappeared after 24 hours, no one would bat an eye. It might have actually looked weird if after a few days I still had the filter on my profile picture, because it would be old news by then.

This simple act of putting a filter on my profile picture really made me reflect on how quickly the turnover rate is for current events. 

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Questions to Consider

What is the topic? What is its relevance to you? Why should it be relevant to your audience? If this project isn’t important to you, it will probably not have the impact of a topic that interests you. This is true in terms of the intellectual energy put into it, as well as the appreciation and acceptance by the public.

My topic is social media and its effect on public memory. I want to explore how social media has made events that should be very significant seem like they are less important . With so many trends that change daily, it is only a matter of hours before a major world event becomes old news. Even just a decade ago, a major event would be followed by a grieving period, then days or even weeks of people following up on the story and staying involved. In today’s world, people forget about events just as quickly as they happen. When people stop tweeting, instagramming, and posting about the event, people forget about it because if it’s not on social media, it’s not relevant.

What makes it an example of public memory—how, in other words, is it “public?” Who is your audience? Simply saying, “the general public,” “my friends and family,” or “the people I grew up with from the town I came from” will not be adequate. You must think of who is likely to see your work, as well as its likelihood of success as a commentary on public life. If it is narrow, it will be (by definition) non-public.

When it comes to social media, the world is your audience. There is no limit to who your information can reach, as long as they are connected to the internet. A little home town story can blow up into world wide news with merely 140 characters . But is this a good thing? With so many stories going on at once it doesn’t leave any room for them to resonate. People forget about stories that should not be forgotten. The audience also depends on the story. If something happens in my small town of Simsbury, CT and people from my town are tweeting about it, it may not have much relevance to someone in Australia. This is because it is a public memory to the people who know what is happening and people that is has significance to. 

Does your project have the potential to make a difference? Whose lives does it touch? What intervention does it make? What is the social (that is, publicly relevant) aspect of this project, and how will it be made clear to the “public?”

My topic has the potential to make a difference because it will hopefully make even one person realize that they need to stop for a second and absorb information. They need to live in the moment and be able to distinguish between what is real and what is no deeper than the surface level of what they see. When we scroll through twitter and Facebook, what is important and relevant? Is is the pictures of your friends, the news stories, or none of it? Should we all disconnect and just live in the present? The social aspect of my project is to bring awareness to the fact that social media is not helping our memory. Social media is very antisocial. It is not a place where you can share your memories, but rather it is just a surface level place where you can look at the memories you have, or in other words they are memories of your memories.

What are your methods for demonstrating the public nature of your project? That is to say, how are you going to present your project?

I want to present my information as a power point. I want to ask the audience questions to make them reflect on their own actions and perceptions of the media. I want them to walk away from my presentation with a better understanding of how we should be interpreting what we see in the media. I want to be asking questions because i want people to think personally, and not look at my project as if it does not apply to them, or that it is just for other people. I believe that we are all taking part in this, myself included.

What are some of the major themes that you plan to explore and discuss as part of your inquiry?

One theme I want to explore is the concept of a grieving period after a major event. I believe that in recent years grieving periods have become so short they may even be nonexistant in some cases. If 9/11 happened today would we be sitting in front of our tvs waiting on the latest recap and absorbing the major effect this will have on our country or would we be tweeting #PrayforNYC and seeing if my tweet gets more favorites than my friends. Would we be instagramming a picture of myself in New York City. I also want to explore the idea of hashtags as a way that people think they are so inclusive because they bring people together about a common topic. However, there are also negatives about hashtags because they change out so quickly that important hashtags get replaced by unimportant hashtags.

How have you been using the annotated bibliography to supplement and develop your ideas about your project?

I have been using my annotated bibliography to supplement my project because I can have all of the different paths I am going on in one place. I have several themes and angles I want to investigate this topic on and I want to be able to summarize all that I research and be able to refer back to it when I need a reminder of my main topic so that I don’t drift too far from the path.

Is your topic cliché? If so, how are you planning on making it a unique or distinctive project? For example, if a few of you are planning on doing a project related to the Boston Marathon, simply saying you want to explore it as public memory will not be enough. That much will be obvious. The challenge for you, therefore, will be to think of ways your exploration will enable your audience to understand public memory in new/innovative ways.

I do not think my topic is cliche because I think that this is an angle and idea that not most people think about. At the very least I would have guessed that the majority of people would think that social media and the documentation of our lives would improve public memory and make it so that we can access as many memories as we want. In fact, I believe the opposite and I want to be able to prove my beliefs.

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November 12th

Today we went to the library to research for our final project. I am doing the topic “how social media affects public memory.” I was stuck at first because it seemed as though there weren’t many articles written about this topic since social media is a fairly new concept. Also, it was even harder to weed through all the articles that were saying that social media has had a positive impact on memory because it is like a huge storage system for everyone’s memory. Once I was able to narrow it down far enough to find articles that were saying how social media is making memories less iconic, my work got a bit easier. 

I did find an article that said that when things are on social media they aren’t really memories; they are the in between a person’s memory and the event that happened. Also, social media is there to serve the purpose of storing data records, not sharing or stories memories. The things one stores and shares might evoke memories when the original poster looks at them, but the posts in themselves are not memories.

Another article notes that it is not an archive because it is constantly changing. It is an aggregate of seemingly “random” and unrelated pictures, text posts, and personal opinions that do not serve a common purpose. Also, digital archives such as 9/11 museums might serve as a way to keep memory preserved but all of the posts are not memories. Remembering and forgetting is all a part of the human memory, and social media is just a way to help prevent some of the forgetting. 

I look forward to doing even more research on this topic and seeing if there is a lot of supporting arguments for my topic even though it is fairly specific.

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November 5th: Mean Girls

Today in class we watched the movie Mean Girls and were looking for connections to public memory. 

- The girls perform a dance to jingle bell rock every year because it is a song that is a “classic” because everyone knows and like it. It is a public emory to the students because they are aware that the “Plastics” do the dance every Christmas. 

- The whole Burn Book is a symbol of public memory because it s documenting rumors about people in school. The people who are in the burn book are all connected to each other and share in the pain that the book caused them.It is also public memory because people who watch the movie might be able to relate to having rumors spread about them.  

- There is a theme throughout the movie about the main character Cady and how she moved here from Africa, yet realized that high school is not far from the jungle. This relates to public memory because many people can agree that high school is a “dog eat dog” mentality, and in a sense, only the weak survive. There are packs, alpha males, and a definite food chain that most people experience or are at least aware of. 

- Throughout the movie Cady is struggling to fit in and make friends with everyone. Almost anyone watching this can relate to the idea of being new and trying to fit in. Cady is not the first person to be the new girl at school so many people can remember similar experiences when watching this. 

- At the end of the movie Cady gives a speech when accepting spring fling queen that basically says that the crown is just a piece of plastic yet it is something that so many girls fight over and make a huge deal of. This is definitely relatable because it seems as though everyone wants to be at the top and they are willing to do anything to get there, when really it is just a meaningless title. 

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October 29th

On this day in class we were supposed to answer the question: how can my layered texts be combined and used as primary references; as well ask pick ten topics we wanted to learn more about, then research some of these topics to actually learn more about this. 

After some thought I figured that my layered texts could be combined and used as primary references because they follow a path of exploration and teach me how to sort through my findings as I go. In other words, by analyzing the photo of the Trinidad carnival I was able to realize that my traditional way of analyzing a photograph was on a much smaller scale than it needed to be. Through this photograph I learned how much more detail and history I was able to come across through even the smallest amount of supplementary research. I was able to take basic objects and aspects I observed in the photograph and learn a great deal more through the exploration of these topics.This new way of thinking and analyzing lead me to want to learn more about the photograph of my father. If I was able to look at a picture of something as totally unrelated to me as the Trinidad carnival picture or the Pulp Fiction image, I was curious to know what else I could find out of the picture that meant so much to me. I didn’t know that there was more to this family picture than just what I saw until I learned the power of research of details that I deemed insignificant. Now I can take this family photograph and research all the possible dimensions and paths I can go down. I began to research something as simple as the outfit my father was wearing which I never thought anything of, and was able to figure out all about the reasons behind this style of lederhosen from the embellishments to the years it was worn to the reasons it went out of style. This research makes me look at the picture totally differently from how I saw it before and now I know the story behind the details. The reason that I can use all of these documents as a reference text is because it has taught me how to analyze and research images that I see and realize there is so much more information just below the surface.

I picked topics that I wanted to learn more about such as the city the photo was taken in, the use of color in photography, what makes a photo iconic, and the style of clothes over time. Through research I discovered many things regarding these topics. I learned that being able to see iconic black and white photographs in color makes it much more relatable to a person today. We are able to look at it like we look at any other photograph of today and pick up on more detail when it is in color. Also, color is important to photographs because it captures the attention of the viewer and sets the overall mood of the image. Different colors give off different meanings to it is important to highlight the colors that are appropriate for the message you are trying to convey. 

It was also through this assignment that I realized what topic I was going to do my final assignment on. I was researching how technology and the use of social media affected public memory and found the topic very interesting. The internet is an external hard drive for everyone’s memories. We can access other people’s memories, and so many more of them, which means that people are able to make more of their memories last longer. Also, since “mobile memories” are so abundant on the internet it takes the value away from each one. There are no longer few, iconic photos, but rather many memories of lesser value.

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October 22nd

In class this day I was thinking about the relevance of the photo of my father. Why does this picture mean anything more than surface level? Will it mean anything to anyone who does not know my father? I wanted answers to these questions so I did some research and thinking. This picture is meaningful to me because my family does not have many pictures of my dad form his childhood so this picture is very special. His family did not have a lot of money back then so they did not have any extra money to spend on film. I can probably count on my fingers the pictures I know of my dad when he was young. This is why this picture is so important. One day my kids will get to see the hundreds and thousands of pictures that exist of me from my childhood. The amount of pictures that exists of my dad as a child is probably equal to the amount of pictures my family now takes each time we go out to dinner. 

Even beyond the fact that this is a picture of my dad, what also makes this picture relevant is all of the information I can take from this photo. also get to see him in a classic German outfit for that time period, which is also something I don’t see much because he rarely talks about his heritage or what life was like living in Germany. To my father this picture is relevant because he can remember being young and wearing outfits like this. It also evokes memories of his grandparents’ house in Germany since this is where the photo was taken. I am sure he does not get to reminisce on memories like those very often, so I am sure it is very interesting to try and remember feelings, experiences, and memories from this time. 

To someone who does not know anyone in this picture personally, it can still be relevant to them. They might relate to the fact that it is a young boy in clothes that are culturally different from American clothes. They might also have a similar picture from their childhood, and reminisce on how their parents would dress them in culture-specific clothing. Even if a person is not of German heritage, everyone is a part of a culture whether they are aware of it or not. No matter what culture they are a part of, a picture like this might make them connect to it for a moment. A person also might look at this photograph and try and try to connect the dots to figure out more from the picture. They could see the lederhosen and guess that the children are from Germany, or see the film quality and possibly guess the around what year the photograph was taken. No matter what degree of knowledge a person has on the specificities of this photo, it is relevant because everyone can take something away from it. 

This photo is relevant because of all the information that can be gathered from it.  Not only can I learn about all the details of the picture but this assignment has made me realize the true value that this photograph has.

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Picture of my Dad

- Picture was taken in 1966

-At his grandparents’ house in Lauchheim, Baden-Wuerttenburg

-Lederhosen continued to be worn in the 1960s, especially the early 1960s. Their popularity was declining, especially by the late 1960s.

-commonly seen attire on youths in Germany from before World War II until the 1970s.

-Except for boys formally dressed or very young boys you rarely see German boys wearing lederhosen with knee socks after the mid-1960s

-The halter began to be less popular - especially with older boys wearing them. We notice younger boys still wearing the halters. 

-It was common for halters to have different decorations - to personalize them or differentiate them

-By the 70s it was only the rare German boy who would consider lederhosen for everyday wear- most had switched to blue jeans

-Short pants and some red leaves on the tree indicate that it is most likely fall

-Lederhosen were extremely practical clothing, which need not to be washed and which stood all activities and which was nearly indestructible.

-One boy had to wear short lederhosen unless it was below freezing to toughen him up

Pick 3 things

-one that has to do with the images

-one that doesnt directly have to do with the image

- something that is almost completely unrelated to the image- down a path of inquiry 

push inquiry but define inquiry

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Who am I?

I am Emily Grace Tietje. My name doesn’t have much meaning behind it, but it sure did take my parents a long time to pick it. My mom wanted to give me a german name to honor my dad’s heritage, something like Gretchen, but my dad was not supportive of this. He did not want me to grow up with an unusual name like he did, he wanted something “American.” My dad also wanted to name me Grace Emily, and my mom wanted Emily Grace. This “battle” didn’t last too long, though, since my mom would not let her daughter be named something she didn’t love. My last name, however, is a bit of a story. I don’t want to go into the specifics of its meaning, a simple google translate will provide the answer, because frankly it is quite embarrassing. Especially when a stranger asks me if my last name is Dutch, and when I say yes they then ask if I know what it means, accompanied by snickers. However, the average American does not know the translation, so it is kind of my family’s little secret. 

I am a nineteen year old girl from a small, quaint town named Simsbury in Connecticut. Simsbury is a very historical town filled with houses from the eighteenth century, open fields, and not a franchise in sight. Growing up in Simsbury, I envied my friends in neighboring towns with movie theaters, strip malls, and fast food restaurants. I did not understand why my parents would want to live in a town with none of those things. Now that I am older, I am so grateful my parents made that decision. I wouldn’t give up my beautiful home town for any amount of chain retailers. 

My mom comes from all over the country. She has lived in Deleware, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, and probably even more than I cannot remember. Her father was in the Air Force, requiring her family to move quite often, leaving her with no one true place to call a home town. This is one of the main reasons why she insisted on keeping my family in the same house for my sisters and I to grow up in. My dad’s childhood was just as unpredictable. My father was born in Hamburg, Germany. His mother had him when she was unmarried, which is a dramatic story all on its own. My grandmother lived in the middle of no where on a farm in Germany, and got pregnant when she was nineteen from my grandfather who was a city boy. This was very scandalous because my grandfather’s parents accused my grandmother of getting pregnant to take my grandfather’s family’s money. As a result, the couple was shunned form the family and forced to start a family of their own with little to no help. My father lived in Germany until he was eleven and my grandparents decided that their best option was to move out of Germany. They relocated their family to Canada where they lived for a short time. My grandfather decided he wanted to start his own company, so they packed up and moved to St. Louis Missouri where my grandfather started his own business and my dad lived during his teen years. 

As far as my family history goes, most of the information I have received is from my dad’s side. Learning about Germany in school definitely lead to some curious dinner conversations thanks to my sisters and I. As it turns out, my great grandparents were Nazi’s, as most people in Germany were at the time. My father explained that they didn’t really have a choice in the matter, they were not interested in finding out what would happen if they went against the status quo. My great grandfather served in the SS, and he was a prison guard in an American prison. My mom tells a story of one of the few times she met him, he didn’t speak much english at all, but one of the only phrases he knew was “let’s go.” After learning at a young age that my great grandparents were Nazis, all I could think about was how crazy that was, and I didn’t realize at the time that wasn’t so crazy for the average German living in Germany at the time. 

I believe that my background gives me a unique perspective on the world because of how grateful it has made me. My father grew up with almost nothing and went through moving to a completely foreign world when he was so young. He watched his father work endlessly to provide them with a good life, form leaving all he knows behind to travel to America without knowing a word of English and start a successful engineering company from the ground up. My father has since taken over the company and works just as hard. I have watched my father sacrifice vacations, and put aside his wants to provide for the needs of his family. He tells us stories of when he ran track in high school and drew in an extra stripe with sharpie onto his sneakers because his family couldn’t afford to buy him the Adidas shoes that everyone else had. Knowing this about my dad has made me appreciate everything he does so much more. He worked hard so that he could give his family an infinitely better life than he had. And now that I am living a more privileged life because of it, it doesn’t make me want to sit back and reap the rewards of his hard work, it makes me want to work just as hard so that I can feel the success that he does. 

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Blindspot and its Relation to Edward S. Casey’s “Public Memory in Place and Time”

     The opening scene in Blindspot includes a duffel bag in the middle of time square. People don’t know what is in the bag and most people expect it is something bad. They call the police and the bomb squad because people are expecting the worse. 

     Edward Casey talks about the different components of public memory, and I can see how these components tie into the opening scene. Casey talks about individual memory and how individual people have distinct perspectives on an event. Each person walking past the duffel bag might remember shootings, bombings, or terrorist attacks. On a wider span, social memory is a memory held by a larger group of similar people. This can relate if we look at the city of New York. People in New York City know that they are in a central hub of population and a likely spot for an attack after the 9/11 attack. Because of this, they might be on high alert and when they see something suspicious like a mysterious duffel bag in the middle of Times Square, it is not surprising if their first instincts are to expect danger. Casey also talks about collective memory which is like social memory except it is a memory held by a large group who do not necessarily know each other but they all have this memory in common. Even though the 9/11 attack occurred in New York City, if the duffel bag was placed in the middle of Los Angeles, a person there might also think it is something dangerous because they have the memory of 9/11 even though they are not from New York.

     Overall, I think that Casey would watch the opening scene of Blindspot and know why everyone acted the way they did. He might presume that everyone has public memories of 9/11, terrorist attacks, bombings, and shootings, and expect the same from this unusual circumstance. The public will never forget about the dangers we face on a day-to-day basis and how something bad can happen to any one of us. We are all on high alert because in the back of our minds we know that something bad can happen at any moment and the future is unpredictable. 

     When the woman comes out of the duffel bag, we do not see her face, only her tattooed body. Despite her lack of identity, we are able to grasp the bigger picture and what her character stands for. In the grand scheme of things relating to 9/11, even though the episode does not blatantly address the terrorist attack, we are all reminded of it based on the symbolism. The location of Times Square, the frantic cop looking for the owner of the duffel, and the scared man in the bomb squad. All of these things point us towards the idea that people are scared and thinking of the worst case scenario. The mystery of the duffel ignited the fearful memories surrounding 9/11.

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Public Memory in Place and Time

- Public memory is both attached to a past event  and acts to ensure a future of further remembering of that same event

-The fact that they are so noteworthy in the past make sure we will remember it in the future

-Public memory does not need to be written down or in the form of an object (ie Gettysburg address)

Four Types of Memory

1. Individual Memory

       - The person who is engaged in memory on any given occasion

2. Social Memory

       - The memory held in common by those who are affiliated either by kinship ties, by geographical proximity in neighborhoods, cities, and other regions, or by engagement in a common project

       - There can be memories of events that one did not experience oneself but that were undergone by consociates whom one does in fact know

3. Collective Memory

       - The circumstance in which different persons, not necessarily known to each other at all, nevertheless recall the same event

       - Allows for co-remembering without co-reminiscing

4. Public Memory

       - Public memory is made up of the other three kinds of memory

- We respond most effectively as a group when there is a catastrophe

- One of the reason we say that we only remember negative things is because every year on the anniversary of a given event we make note that it is the memory out of respect of any victims and in their honor. Because of this, it seems like these memories never die and we never forget about tragedies.

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Week 3

Analysis of Blind Spot and how public memory plays into it

aspects of it that evoke public memory

        Bomb squad was called in because people know America’s history of bombings and need to take necessary precautions. They remember bombings around the world, terrorist attacks, and they know that New York City is a major city and likely a place for a bombing. In this case, public memory caused people to act in a certain way that was more cautious than they normally would have acted. 

        We are defined by our choices which lead to our memories. The woman makes the same choices that she normally would even though she has no memories. Despite her lack of memory of her past, she makes the same choice because it is a part of her mind and herself.  

       Chow is going to be setting off a bomb because of all the Chinese suffering. There is a public memory of the suffering of Chinese people as a culture and he is acting based off his personal experiences with this public memory and topic in general.