“I remember exactly where I was when…” It starts conversation and provokes recollection. Some are personal situations – when my mom died, or when I learned I was going to be a father. Those are the first two I thought of, which refer to unique events in my life that can still be relatable universally. Not everyone experienced either of these moments when I did, but most people can empathize with the situation, because it either already did happen to them, or they can imagine their own version of it.
Now think of an event that had more wide-reaching historical significance; one that people often remember vividly and personally. In psychology, that moment is called a flashbulb moment. Earlier generations likely remember when the stock market crashed in October of 1929, plunging the country into the Great Depression. Older friends and relatives talk about remembering the John F. Kennedy assassination.
People closer to my age may remember things like the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding in January of 1986. (If anyone is curious, I was eating lunch between classes at the University Union, watching the event occur in real time. The friend sitting next to me quietly muttered an understated, “Oh, that’s not good.”) The 9/11 Attacks are one of the biggest ones for us Gen-Xers. In fact, that one goes for Boomers and Millennials, too, come to think of it. And seeing the Apollo 11 Moon Landing is my earliest childhood memory.
A flashbulb moment examines an aspect of such an event, but because it’s a personal connection, it only applies to situations that were experienced personally. I have no flashbulb moment of, say, the Cuban Missile Crisis. I wasn’t alive to remember it.
But there is a flip side to that coin. Certain iconic photographs capture an event or era. They instantly summon that situation. In some cases, the photo or video serves as the defining image. The image encapsulates the piece of history – especially for those who did not experience it personally.
It doesn’t even matter that some photos may have been staged, misattributed or edited from their original form. The impact doesn’t go away. They still serve as a kind of visual shorthand for those moments.
Anniversaries are triggers of their own. The 84th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is later this week, and the final 2 survivors of the USS Arizona died in late April of 2024. Both were 102 years old. This instantly came to mind.
-Toph
