When one thinks of the Alamo, they
might think of it as just a building that was used during a war. Some might
think of the loss that was had at this place, where soldiers lost their lives.
What we are doing when we think of the history of such a place is remembering
it, remembering the people that had risked their lives here. In a way, that
mindset can be tied back to the ideas that we talked about in Social Media this
week. Specifically, we can look to both the ideas of self-representation and
remembrance. Though, how we get there might be a bit of a sideways viewpoint.
For those that don’t know about the Alamo, it was a stronghold where Texans
fought against Mexico for independence from them. While those of the Alamo lost
the fight, this is still such a huge deal for Texans, a staple of the state.
Now, why would it be a staple if it was a fight that we lost? Wouldn’t we feel
ashamed for the loss and think ourselves weaker? No! The Alamo can actually be
seen as symbolism for Texas pride. After all, the war that was fought during
the time was for Texas’ independence from Mexico.
Which leads into how it relates to
our class this week. In class we talked about the idea of identity work within
social media, which is basically how we define ourselves within our own social
media. This can be through many different things, not just pictures or posts
about us. Our identity can be defined through things such as memes or through
pictures of those around us. By looking at those different aspects, people can
gain some sort of idea of who we are as a person, and what we represent. The
same sort of thing could be said about the Alamo. While many could see it as
“just a building,” Texans can see it as a symbol of their pride for their
state. It’s like a portrait of the ideals Texans hold, such as perseverance and
courage. Though, in actuality, the building is more used as a museum at this
point.
Though, even though it’s used as a
museum, the Alamo can still represent the idea of remembrance within our class
as well, in a more literal sense. In class, remembrance is more the idea of
using social media as time-stamps within our lives. We use it to post pictures
of big events in our lives, no matter how insignificant, such as our first day
of school every year. We use this social media as an archive for our
experiences, so that we can look back through and remember those different days
of our lives, akin to the use of a scrapbook. When it comes to the Alamo, we can
see this being done in a very literal way, since it’s been made into a museum.
We get to see the history behind the building, and learn about some of the
patriots that fought within the Alamo for the 13 day long siege. We get to walk
along the building, actually seeing where the bullets had flown in and where
the damage had actually been done in the building. It’s extremely similar to
our idea of remembrance within social media. While not used as a scrapbook of
recent events, it’s still a time-stamp within history that is still standing
for all to see, just like all the photos that we post on the internet, trapped
forever within the swirling, unending string that is the world wide web…
Anyway, back to the topic at hand!
I can understand how this example
might be quite a bit of a stretch. After all, we’re comparing an actual
building to ideas within a social media class. The two different topics don’t
even seem like they would go hand in hand at all! However, that is not the case
as far as I can see. In both of these things we can see how the people working
with them were trying to establish their own identity, one in the world itself
and the other via social media (which is the world for some people, honestly).
On top of this, we use both of these things (social media and the Alamo) as a
way of remembering the past through different ways, one through the archiving
of pictures and one through becoming a museum. Again, I can understand how
these would be a fairly large stretch to make. And yet, in some ways, I can see
how the Alamo makes such a fantastic representation of these two ideas from our
class this week. And thus, we end off the post with a phrase that’s been tossed
around for years now, a phrase uniquely and utterly Texan: Remember The Alamo.
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