In Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory, Andrea Huyssen questions whether the past has become too much a part of the present when compared to earlier centuries and whether the boundaries between history and memory have been broken (Huyssen, 1). Perhaps, this is the blemish with the hashtag. In providing a platform on Twitter and Instagram for the nation to tell their narratives and speak with one another, the primary hashtags used to honor September 11th, 2001 have become focused on the practice of memory... "#AlwaysRemember, #NeverForget911..." and the history of the event has become tangled amongst the individual and collective memories. However, later on in the piece, Huyssen writes...
"We need both past and future to articulate our political, social, cultural dissatisfactions with the present state of the world. And while the hypertrophy of memory can lead to self-indeulfence, melancholy fixations, and a problematic privileging of the traumatic dimension of life with no exit in sight, memory discourses are absolutely essential to imagine the future and to regain a strong temporal and spacial grounding of life and the imagination in a media and consumer society that increasingly voids temporality and collapses space" (Huyssen, 6).
Thus, the hashtag, although unconventional, is an effective, accessible, connective, and representative site of memory that serves as a modern memorial bridging the past, the present, and the future. It aids the nation in knowing what was September 11th, what is September 11th as we continue to remember the event, and what will be of September 11th as the nation is in charge of preserving and understanding the messages of unity and perseverance that emerged that morning. As "cheesy" or "superficial" the hashtag "#Neverforget911" may sound as millions around the world post it and make it popular on the "What's trending?" list, the hashtag ensures that the 2,993 names, plus the thousands of names of family and friends affected, the thousands of names of witnesses, and the thousands of names of the future generations are remembered and represented. The hashtag keeps the memory of September 11th, 2001 present and living in society during this digital age (which is constantly advancing), so that the 9/11 tragedy does not become, in the terms of another famous hashtag, merely a "throwback."
"We need both past and future to articulate our political, social, cultural dissatisfactions with the present state of the world. And while the hypertrophy of memory can lead to self-indeulfence, melancholy fixations, and a problematic privileging of the traumatic dimension of life with no exit in sight, memory discourses are absolutely essential to imagine the future and to regain a strong temporal and spacial grounding of life and the imagination in a media and consumer society that increasingly voids temporality and collapses space" (Huyssen, 6).
Thus, the hashtag, although unconventional, is an effective, accessible, connective, and representative site of memory that serves as a modern memorial bridging the past, the present, and the future. It aids the nation in knowing what was September 11th, what is September 11th as we continue to remember the event, and what will be of September 11th as the nation is in charge of preserving and understanding the messages of unity and perseverance that emerged that morning. As "cheesy" or "superficial" the hashtag "#Neverforget911" may sound as millions around the world post it and make it popular on the "What's trending?" list, the hashtag ensures that the 2,993 names, plus the thousands of names of family and friends affected, the thousands of names of witnesses, and the thousands of names of the future generations are remembered and represented. The hashtag keeps the memory of September 11th, 2001 present and living in society during this digital age (which is constantly advancing), so that the 9/11 tragedy does not become, in the terms of another famous hashtag, merely a "throwback."