Suhas - Week 15 - You Remember It Wrong
In my childhood, I was completely obsessed with Pokémon, and I loved Pikachu in particular. I would try to draw him with his yellow body, red cheeks, and, of course, the unmistakable black tip at the end of his tail. I also remember watching Star Wars. I enjoyed the different plot twists and events, especially the iconic line of "Luke, I am your father." I remember the eventful Halloween nights, knocking on doors to get candy. My favourite by far to get were Kit-Kats, and I would be overjoyed when I got one from any house. These were all important aspects of my childhood, and I can remember each event clearly.
But what if I told you those memories were faulty?
- Pikachu's tail was never tipped in black. It has always been completely yellow.
- Darth Vader never said “Luke, I am your father.” The actual line is “No, I am your father.”
- KitKat has never had a hyphen. It’s one word without a dash or space.
When I first learned of these details, I was completely shocked. However, I am not alone; this phenomenon, where large masses of people misremember the same detail, event, or word collectively, is called the Mandela Effect. It was named due to many misremembering that Nelson Mandela, the primary activist in South Africa's anti-apartheid efforts and former president of South Africa, died in prison in the 1980s, even though he actually passed away in 2013.
This effect proves that our memories are not exactly personal. They are created by repetition, the media, and assumptions. What we remember may not necessarily be real, but it is a version our brain chooses to remember based on what feels right.
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| Source: Yahoo |
Hi Suhas,
ReplyDeleteI became interested in reading your blog when you sent me a message to see if your blog was “working fine,” and I did not know that you actually did a transition or played around with the blogger.com features. I was shocked to realize that Pikachu, indeed, did not have a black-tipped tail even though I basically grew up on Pokemon. I also like how you included your genuine reaction to also show us as the readers the emotions you experienced when you came to this realization. The concluding paragraph also hit home because when I really thought about it, we are dependent on the media and assumptions instead of true and hard facts. Your blog post really made me rethink my entire life and if every memory I can recall right now was true. For example, I thought I lost to this one tennis player, but whenever I go onto my tennis record, it shows that I beat him. I guess this does prove your points that our memories are faulty. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog and taking a trip down memory lane.
-Krish
Hi Suhas,
ReplyDeleteWow! You definitely went above and beyond with this blog post. I didn’t know this feature of hiding the blog’s content until a certain amount of time passed was a feature included in the blogger.com’s text editing interface. This is definitely something I’d like to play around and experiment with in my future blog posts. Humorously, I was about to click away from your blog post because I thought there was some kind of technical error until the second before I was about to close the tab where the rest of your article appeared! The misremembering phenomenon that you described in your blog post was truly shocking, building upon the previous visual effect you incorporated in your article. If someone asked me if pikachu’s tail was colored black or if KitKat had a hyphen in between, I would probably say yes. Interestingly, however, if someone asked me how to spell KitKat, I may or may not have included the hyphen. I think it is more about when you are asked the question on the spot, you question your own memory and your mind adds fictitious elements to match the description that the person who is asking the question gives.
Thanks,
Ritwik
Hi Suhas! I loved reading your blog this week! The Blogger effect that you used was really really cool—I didn’t even know you could do that!
ReplyDeleteAbout the content, I didn’t realize anything was wrong with the Pikachu tail or the KitKats. I literally had to search up the Pikachu and Kitkat for myself just to see if you were actually correct—it’s so hard for me to believe that Pikachu didn’t have a black tail!
I definitely agree with your statement about how memories are created by repetition and the media. The media is actually where I learn a lot of these things—I have no other interactions with Pikachu or Kitkat in my mundane life. I think that the media is definitely why so many people had obtained the incorrect belief about Nelson Mandela. Thanks for sharing, I hope you have an amazing week and get all fives on your AP tests!