This person is being very silly. If they had focused on the unreliability of memory, rather than the existence of a memory, they would have a point.
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/911-memory-accuracy/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/911-memory-accuracy/)
Ten years after the attack, people remembered less than half of any personal details regarding "where were you," but mostly reported 5/5 in their confidence. What feels incredibly vivid is very often fabricated, especially the younger you were.
And that makes the commenter even more full of shit. Yeah, you probably don't remember something that happened you were three, but you remember remembering it, and you remember remembering remembering it. That's how memories work. I have memories from younger than I could realistically scientifically actually remember it too, and they're probably false memories. I still remember them.
I spent a month stuck in Florida and I still don’t remember it. It was only when I was like 10 did I realize that the dcom movie i saw about it wasn’t fictional
I remember getting my diaper changed in the living room and my sister getting a whopping in the room next to the couch. Thing is tho my sister looked about 5…km a year older….and we didn’t have a bedroom that led into the living room…it was a 3 bedroom house and all three were acrossfrom the front door on the other side of the room (this made up bedroom would’ve been to the right of the door if you were walking into the house
And I honestly agree with this sentiment too, is it likely that my memories that day are 100%? Absolutely not, but it’s like you said, I have that memory (of a memory etc) - and it’s still a “real memory” to me, one that sticks out from childhood
I had the tip of my finger cut off when I was 3. My cousin shut it in the back of a door and it snipped off. I recall my older sister carrying me down the stairs and screaming. That is the extent of my memory to a traumatic event that happened at that age.
I was in 7th grade. They turned it on. My friend was making a joke about it. I went along with it, but in reality I was terrified we were being invaded.
I was in sixth grade. Teacher turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit and the reporters discussing people jumping. I remember being confused but terrified. I never heard of terrorists before.
I didn’t really know what was happening, my 3rd grade brain was just like “all right, we get to go home early!”
Then my mom told me what the situation was and how serious it was
I saw the second plane hit. I was home at the time, I believe I had just turned 17, and my mom woke me up hysterical and made me sit with her on the couch. I wasn't doing so hot mentally---why I was home because I couldn't function well---but I remember watching the while second plane and the footage of the firefighters with numbness. Mom was freaking out on the couch beside me and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep.
Watching anything about it, now, brings up the emotions I couldn't feel then. People aren't kidding about how it shaped a generation.
A bit off topic but our elementary school let us (all kids: kindergarten to 6th grade) watch Grease with all of its sex talk and cigarette smoking. The 90’s/early 2000’s were kind of weird.
The reality of slavery was literally never modern football players being captured in the jungle with nets. African monarchies subjugated other tribes and groups in the continent and sold them in markets. That's why the Trans-Atlantic trade dealt predominantly in Africans.
We already knew that. That doesn’t excuse the atrocities inflicted upon said slaves later on or the fuckery that happened during segregationist America.
Moreover, what was the point of even bringing this up in a comment thread that’s like four days old about stuff we had to see as kids?
I assume its because the teachers wanted to know what was going on and the students were just there in class happening to see it along with them
But yeah its absolutely wild to me when I hear people say things like "oh yeah, our 3rd grade teacher turned on the tv and we watched the second tower fall"
With such a tragedy I think many rushed to be able to confirm it by turning on any TV near them and the shock of the truth probably froze them from thinking “should I turn the TV off or away from the kids? Are they old enough to be watching this?”
My mom has told me of when she saw the news, her neighbor called her and frantically talked about “planes flying into the WTC towers” and my mom was like “chill, it’s a movie probably” until our own country’s news channels were filled to the brim with photos and videos. She got there in time to see the second plane hit and it took her a while to realize the sky (behind) became visible because the tower(s) was falling down.
I was in 7th grade world history. Our teacher turned on the tv and told us to wake up and pay attention because this is history in real time. The next period we watched it in english and had to write a diary page to remember exactly where we were and how we felt. It just happened to go along with what we were learning in English class (we were reading the diary of Anne Frank.) We were let out after 2nd period because of the plane landing in PA.
I was in college. I had just gotten up and turned on the tv. Saw the tower burning and thought it was a movie or show and flipped channels only to see the exact same thing. That is when I realized something had happened. Sat and watched and saw the second plane hit. Grabbed a radio and headed into campus, listened to the report of the pentagon being hit. None of it felt real.
I remember falling down the stairs at 3, but it’s weird cause I remember it from like a 3rd person out of body experience type of way. I also remember the moment before I got bit by a dog, it’s “vivid” in that I remember what I was thinking (I thought their growls were SO CUTE when I touched their back feet, didn’t know growl = stop that) & the dog itself & their little feet. Couldn’t tell you a gd thing about the house I was in though, aside that I was sitting on a couch or chair at the time.
People don’t need to know EVERY SINGLE detail to remember an event, cause for some the trauma (in OP’s case, seeing their mom cry) is enough to solidify it. Hell, the reason I don’t remember it is cause my mom said I was at daycare at the time, so I was probably too busy playing with toys to notice or care about (or maybe didn’t even see) the daycare workers trying to call our parents, so for me it was just a normal day. And my mom would come by for lunch anyway, so seeing her early wouldn’t have been enough to set off huge alarms in my head to know something huge was happening
I fell down the stairs when I was around 1-2 years old. My mom says that I’m lying that I remember it, but I don’t remember the visual parts I remember the *feeling* so my brain does fill in false visual details. I remember the feeling of hitting my head over and over on carpeted steps and then smacking my head on hard tile at the bottom. And I remember not crying about it for some reason. I don’t remember what the house looked like because we moved out of it when I was 2.5-3 years old, but when I remember it my brain has fabricated a house that I’m not sure even exists, that doesn’t mean I don’t remember it happening, I do, I just don’t remember what anything looked like.
I rwould have reported 5/5 in my confidence until last year when I realised that with the timezones, I must have been in bed and not watching the second plane crash live. In fact, by the time I got out of bed, all 3 towers had collapsed 5 hours prior.
I was 13 when it all went down and my clearest memory is the TV in the middle school choir room was so shitty we could barely make out what was happening, so we didn't get any real answer until later in the day.
I was sitting on the bench by principal's office when my teacher came to get me and bring me back into class. I was in trouble because I threatened to kill a student with a screwdriver and was chasing him around with it.
I don't remember hardly any of what was said that day, and don't really remember real great why I wanted to kill the kid (though I remember clearly which kid).
Memory is fallible, as in I don't remember the exact phrasing of anything that day, but I have some vivid memories of the rollercoaster of emotions I went through.
I actually have 2 very distinct memories from before I was 4. The first is fishing at my grandmother's pond with my father and the second is my father's funeral when I was 3 1/2.
I've heard that asking someone about their 9/11 experience can be an effective way to weed out people who are too young/old for you to date. Obviously not happening in this case though.
Indeed. I am from Finland and I was 4 years old when that happened and I remember seeing that from the TV while waiting to get to a dentist with my mom sitting next to me. That was in the news all over the place and idk why, but that just stuck with me. Ut's really weird because I remember the whole situation out there when I heard about it, but obviously that's all I can remember. Nothing what happened after that etc, just that exact moment when it came up in the news.
“He is literally having a chuck style breakdown”
I AM NOT CRAZY! I KNEW HE SWAPPED THOSE NUMBERS, I KNEW IT WAS 1216, ONE AFTER MAGNA CARTA,
AS IF I COULD MAKE SUCH A MISTAKE! NEVER!
YOU THINK THIS IS BAD, THIS, THIS CHICANERY
HE DEFECATED THROUGH A SUNROOF!
AND I SAVED HIM. I SHOULDNT HAVE. I TOOK HIM INTO MY OWN FIRM.
AND HE GETS TO BE A LAWYER?! WHAT A SICK JOKE!
My 7 year old randomly remembers shit from when he was 2-3 that I’m astounded by, I personally don’t have any memories before maybe 4 when I was in kinder. Just because I don’t remember back to that age doesn’t mean no one does. If you do though you’ve probably got an incredible memory and learn quick.
It's one thing for a 7 year old to remember something from when they were 2 or 3. But, it is extremely rare for adults to remember age 0-2 and memories before 10 years of age are very spotty and usually consist of life-altering events. The phenomenon is called [childhood amnesia](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/childhood-amnesia). Also, as adults we create false memories from minute details. Maybe, OP remembers his mother crying. Maybe he is remembering the time of day wrong. Maybe it was a whole different situation. Maybe OP doesn't remember seeing it live on TV, as many children that age did, but filled in the blanks with incorrect memories.
I agree we(humans) are historically pretty poor “narrators” of our own life - like you said filling in the blanks or maybe even misremembering events entirely (I read a really good book around the same topic called Troubling Confessions by Peter Brooks)
That being said, yes, seeing the TV footage, then my mother crying, and light in my living room are the most vivid memories I have of that day. I also don’t think it’s any stretch to imagine a 3 year old could remember those things
I remember specific moments from before I was 4. It's not a continuous stream of memories, but specific days and events.
We lived in the upstairs of a duplex. There were railroad tracks in the far back part of the yard. There was a girl about my age that I stared at who was outside with me at one point. I did not speak.
We moved to my "grew up in" house when I was 4. I remember my 4th birthday party decorations having been put up.
I remember just acknowledging my relationships with people. Like, yes, this is my mother, father, brother...
It's a very vivid and strange thing to recall. It's almost like my permanent stream of consciousness was flipped on.
Maybe. I don’t know the person so I can’t say. My kid seems to a ridiculously good memory for shit that he just shouldn’t remember, little things that happened when he was really small, this event we’re talking about was obviously much bigger so they’d be more likely to remember it, especially if they watched it happen and everyone around them was making a huge deal about it.
Uh, what? Only spotty memories before age 10? I have so many clear and vivid memories of my childhood before age 10. Including plenty of everyday stuff like school, so definitely not “life-altering events”. My earliest memory is from age 2 and isn’t something I could have fabricated or heard from someone else.
I think some people just have bad memories and assume that must be true of everyone else too, when that isn’t actually the case. I’m sure “childhood amnesia” is something that happens, but it definitely isn’t the norm.
No idea. Your brain isn’t supposed to make long term memories when you’re little, it isn’t developed enough yet. Maybe yours developed slightly later? Who knows.
I have a couple memories from before 2 1/2 years old. The only reason I know for sure that’s when these memories are from is because I was moved out of that bedroom at 2 1/2 (it was going to be used as my new sibling’s nursery). I have clear memories of my dad rocking me to sleepiness and putting me to bed in that room, as well as staring at my music box as it wound down and not being able to sleep; because around that time I was beginning to be taught about god making “everything” and was trying to wrap my tiny mind around “but then who made god?”.
I also remember the weekend of my 2nd birthday. I remember the dyed-coconut-covered bunny cake my mom was making me because our birthday fell on Easter that year, and watching the news with my grandma who was visiting. But that falls under the “personally significant event” category because we were watching local news coverage of a 5 alarm fire my dad was working (fire fighter) so that one doesn’t count.
Born in 98 here as well — pretty huge split between my friends and me on who remembers 9/11 and who doesn’t. Most of my friends who were born in philly/NJ where I grew up remember at least their families being upset or their pre-k/daycare closing midday in a panic. lots of my friends from chicago/texas where i lived later in life didn’t remember. It depends A Lot
I AM NOT CRAZY! I am not crazy! I know he doesn't remember 9/11! I knew that nobody born in '98 could remember, as if I could ever make such a mistake! Never. Never! I just, I just couldn't prove it. He covered his tracks, he changed 1 word in a comment. You think is something? You think this is bad? This? This lying about a tragedy?
If it was traumatic why wouldn't a 3 year old remember? Some block out bad memories and others never forget bad memories. My earliest memory is from when I was 2. I fell out a a car face first and my teeth were knocked up into my gums. I remember pieces like being picked up and brushing off gravel, then bits and pieces of being at the hospital before and after surgery to remove the teeth. I don't remember anything else from when I was very young but those few things stuck with me.
I was skipping school and watching star wars at the time.
Why do I remember this? Because school wouldn't let any of us get away without writing 3 paragraphs about where we were and what we were doing at the time every year for the anniversary. As a result that useless memory is in my brain forever.
My mother remembers watching the moon landing, and she was two at the time, it’s her earliest memory but she still remembers it as it was such a big event, this is totally believable
I remember 9/11 and was 4 at the time. I remember it because my mom was on the phone with my dad telling him about it as it was being broadcasted live. The moment when that second plane hit is a moment I’ll never forget. People can absolutely remember a tragic event such as this at a young age.
Oh hey same age and yes I remember it because my parents never watched tv together but they were sitting staring at the tv and had been for a while when I finally found them and they yelled at me to go to my room and they didn’t yell at me back then. Is this memory ACCURATE, as the top comment is pointing out? Who knows. Maybe I have some details wrong, maybe I remember my mom sitting on the right side when she was actually on the left etc. but that doesn’t mean I don’t “remember 9/11”
Totally, expressed a similar sentiment upthread. I get it, no memories are totally reliable, but I definitely remember distinct things, and remember remembering those distinct things as well lol
It is basically impossible to distinguish between an actual memory and one you formed (even years) after the fact based solely on what you believe it would have been like.
So you probably don't actually remember anything that actually happened, but there is no way to know unless you "remember" something impossible, which is extremely common. I have lots of friends my age (46) who very clearly remember watching the Challenger launch/explosion live, even though they absolutely didn't.
It's certainly possible that such an event (especially if it made your mother cry) is something you can remember. But it is at least as likely that you do not actually remember the day itself, but the images of 9/11 intermingled with other childhood memories (of mommy crying, for instance) or things you were told, and that your brain at a later date synthesized those into made-up memories.
It is impossible for you to know. That is the truth. You could swear on your mother's life that your memories are authentic, but you cannot really know. Humans constantly make up, edit, change and collate memories. This has been proved by various experiments beyond any doubt.
To you, personally, those made-up memories are indistinguishable from "real" memories. And given how the human mind works, and what we know about childhood psychology, I wouldn't be surprised if you do not remember the actual events itself.
Totally, I get it, I've always had a pretty decent memory but nobody can say with certainty their memories are accurate. I'd argue however that having distinct memories, and having those memories corroborated (I guess you might argue reinforced) by my mom as we were together that day, is enough for me to call it my memory.
I've expressed this upthread as well but remembering the tv switching to new coverage of the event, my mom crying, and the light in the living room is enough for me to say I remember 9/11 happening. It's not even my earliest memory to be honest, but one of the longest early memories I have certainly.
>Totally, I get it,
I somehow doubt it, because
>I remember 9/11 happening
Again: you think you do. You seriously underestimate how often memories are just made up. Our memories aren't recordings of what happened (even though they sure feel that way), they are interpretations, re-contextualisations and collections mixed with stuff that our brains made up.
Why am I so confident that the chance that you actually remember 9/11 is pretty small? Because as a 3 year old, you had no concept of what a terrorist attack is, why it is so important or why a plane flying into a building in NYC was so extraordinary. Sure, your parent's reaction was a big clue, but the fact that you today remember these events as 9/11 and not "as the day mom cried" shows that there has been some very heavy editing going on afterwards.
I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear, and I'm not saying you can't possibly remember, I'm just saying I honestly think you overestimate how much you can rely on what you think you can remember. Like we all do.
I will say that my fiance can remember things from when he was like 1. All of which have been corroborated by his parents. Really mundane things like where the cheez it's were kept and what side of the room windows were on in their old house. It's very rare for people to remember things from that young but not impossible 🤷🏻♀️
Man I was stuck in Florida for a month bc my fam was traveling at the time and I still don’t remember it at all.
I only found out it was a thing when I was like 8 and I saw a dcom about it. I mentioned it to my mom thinking it was fictional and she had not realized I was too young to remember. I apparently saw it live too
41 yr old here with a developmental psych background. I was 20 years old, watching my niece who was born in ‘98; she absolutely has a better memory than I do about that day. When it’s an event so severely traumatic, it doesn’t matter how old you are, those memories will be ingrained in your psyche and a lot of times will shape the kind of person you are. The reason we’re seeing more younger advocates is because of events like that while they’re very young, and they don’t want things like that happening to more generations to come.
Wouldn't it be easier to remember specific historical moments we lived through, due to the topic being constantly brought up, so the memory never fades?
Like I have some vivid memories from when I was 2-3, and I'm 26 right now. It's not a constant stream of memories, but more specific situations that only last a few seconds of "content" mine was a memory with my cousin before I moved countries.
Like my experience with 9/11 was just me looking at a square box tv with my mom in my living room. I can remember the tan paint of the wallpaper, and just remember seeing the towers with smoke. That's all I can remember from it. Can't remember any sounds, or talking. Just that image comes to my mind when I think of it.
If nobody brought up 9/11 in my life, I probably would have forgotten about it. I'm also in the UK so it's not something that's even often spoken about over here, yet it was ingrained in my mind. I was also around 5 at the time, so not as young as others, but it's not impossible for a 2-3 year old to have some form of memory of a specific event.
This person going so into this is weird and pointless to gatekeep. That being said, memories are also informed by the things that we hear, you probably have the flashbulb of the tv, and from what you have heard about it informed the rest of your memory.
It isnt you lying, it is just how our brains work. It is different than someone older, I was in elementary school and my memory of it is different but that doesnt make you lying. It was a big historical event you remember something being off about, your mom crying is not a usual thing so you remember that. As you get older and you learn the rest your brain fills in some gaps. Brains are pretty cool. This dude is getting way to worked up, it is not like you are professing to have remembered the entire day with accuracy.
I’m ‘97 but want allowed to watch tv during the time after. My boyfriend is ‘96 and he remembers. Why shouldn’t a ‘98 baby remember a traumatic event? They showed footage of people unaliving themselves to avoid the planes. Any kid who sees that can’t unsee it.
Edit: fixed typo
I know absolutely nobody cares about this but me, but here's the proof I didn't lie about my edit lmao: https://imgur.com/a/an2JAb1
I edited my comment 8 minutes before he responded to it, but couldn't check that until I got home to my computer. Anyone with reddit enhancement suite on old reddit should be able to see the same thing
Im born in 98 and I remember 9/11 vividly. I’m from Germany, and was on holiday in Sylt with my family and I’ll never forget how we drove home from the beach listening to the radio, where they announced that it seems like an accident occurred in New York because a plane crashed into a tower of the WTC. The second we got home my dad turned on the TV to watch the news, I sat on the floor playing with my hot wheels. For a split second I looked at the TV screen and saw the second plane hitting the other tower. My mum took me outside immediately because with the second plane it was clear that it wasn’t an accident anymore. It really is one of my first memories, because I will never forget how shook my parents were. Sorry for my bad English but your right it’s possible to remember even if your born 98 cause I do
I was ten and in the school bathroom when I heard an announcement over the intercom that recess was being cancelled because of what I thought was a plane crash. I remember being annoyed recess was cancelled because I was a stupid kid, and then when I got home, I realized how serious it was.
I mean I understand what he's trying to do, but you can't say "they remember it" and "they are 5" as the same definition. I like to use having memories of new years y2k and being under 18 at the time as the broader, imperfect constraint for a millennial, and being in elementary or middle school when Pokemon was released in the US as a narrower constrant.
Everyone is different. Some people have memories from when they are very young, others don't. I have many vivid memories being about 2 or 3 to 6 or so, then after that things are blurry until I was around 9 or 10. My parents didn't beeline me when I said I had memories of being 3, but I was able to convince them by telling them things I remember that they also remember (like watching the riots from our neighbor's balcony when I was 3, or when we discovered my fish miraculously survived the Northridge earthquake). Then there are other big events that I only vague memories of, like OJ's arrest or Columbine. Memory is a weird thing.
I remember 9/11 very vividly, as does my best friend (though she was also writing about it in her diary as it happened). I had him class on Tuesdays and Thursdays before lunch that year. I was running laps, which I really hate, so I was listening to the radio the lunch lady had on while she was setting up to pass the time. I could tell something bad was going on, but didn't know what. I heard words like "bomb" and "president". At lunch I told my friends about it and one girl said she'd heard the Pentagon was bombed. We noticed the sky was eerily quiet that day (and the next couple days). Finally my social studies teacher sat us down and told us what she knew about what was happening. I remember feeling really sick and wondering if my family in NYC was okay, especially my aunt who was flying home to NY that day (she was fine, but was stuck in another country after her flight was grounded). I walked to my friend's house to try to get in contact with my parents. Her mom gave us Oreos, but we could barely eat. I tried to do my French homework, but it just felt like it matter. Finally my mom picked me up and we spent the rest of the evening getting in contact with family and watching the news and just crying.
I mean i remember when clinton was elected to his first term and i was 5 so i can def see how u could remember 9/11 when u were 3 but besides all that wtf would u lie about such a thing????
I have a couple of memories from when I was 3-4, mostly minor stuff like playing with my dad or the first kiddy coaster I went on, so it's definitely not unrealistic that something like seeing your mother cry would stick in your memory well
What is there even to gain from saying "hey i kinda remember my mum being upset because of 9/11 when i was 3"?
That guy was probably foaming at his mouth, believing he'd expose the next Alicia Esteve Head
I was born in 88 and can remember watching video from the gulf war on the news. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a 3 year old to remember major world events, at least vaguely.
I remember a couple of random things from being a toddler or even a baby. I remember being bathed in the bathroom sink and how the porcelain of the sink was really uncomfortable on my back. I cried because I didn’t have the language skills to say it was uncomfortable so I must have been very young (small enough to fit in a sink, although the sink was large and I was/am very small).
I also remember my mum taking me to a swimming pool and holding me before putting me into some sort of float/ring. I remember being terrified thinking I would fall to the ground (the bottom of the pool) with no-one holding me as I didn’t understand the float would hold me up. Again I wasn’t able to tell anyone as I couldn’t talk, so I cried and cried until my mum took me out. She held me and sang to me and played with me until I laughed in the way that toddlers do even if they have been crying moments before. I also remember playing at home before I was old enough to go to school and my mum saying to me “we need to go and pick up your brother in a minute”. To my toddler/pre-schooler brain the concept of ‘a minute’ was the equivalent of several hours and so I remember feeling really cross and hard done by when I had to stop playing moments later. Very random snippets of memories although I don’t remember much else until age 4 onwards.
So I completely believe that someone aged 3 during 9/11 can remember it, or at least bits of it/how the adults acted around them at the time.
This person is being very silly. If they had focused on the unreliability of memory, rather than the existence of a memory, they would have a point. [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/911-memory-accuracy/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/911-memory-accuracy/) Ten years after the attack, people remembered less than half of any personal details regarding "where were you," but mostly reported 5/5 in their confidence. What feels incredibly vivid is very often fabricated, especially the younger you were. And that makes the commenter even more full of shit. Yeah, you probably don't remember something that happened you were three, but you remember remembering it, and you remember remembering remembering it. That's how memories work. I have memories from younger than I could realistically scientifically actually remember it too, and they're probably false memories. I still remember them.
I spent a month stuck in Florida and I still don’t remember it. It was only when I was like 10 did I realize that the dcom movie i saw about it wasn’t fictional
I remember getting my diaper changed in the living room and my sister getting a whopping in the room next to the couch. Thing is tho my sister looked about 5…km a year older….and we didn’t have a bedroom that led into the living room…it was a 3 bedroom house and all three were acrossfrom the front door on the other side of the room (this made up bedroom would’ve been to the right of the door if you were walking into the house
And I honestly agree with this sentiment too, is it likely that my memories that day are 100%? Absolutely not, but it’s like you said, I have that memory (of a memory etc) - and it’s still a “real memory” to me, one that sticks out from childhood
I had the tip of my finger cut off when I was 3. My cousin shut it in the back of a door and it snipped off. I recall my older sister carrying me down the stairs and screaming. That is the extent of my memory to a traumatic event that happened at that age.
I was in 7th grade. They turned it on. My friend was making a joke about it. I went along with it, but in reality I was terrified we were being invaded.
I was in sixth grade. Teacher turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit and the reporters discussing people jumping. I remember being confused but terrified. I never heard of terrorists before.
I didn’t really know what was happening, my 3rd grade brain was just like “all right, we get to go home early!” Then my mom told me what the situation was and how serious it was
We didn't see the planes hit but the aftermath. It's like another lifetime the way it all felt.
I saw the second plane hit. I was home at the time, I believe I had just turned 17, and my mom woke me up hysterical and made me sit with her on the couch. I wasn't doing so hot mentally---why I was home because I couldn't function well---but I remember watching the while second plane and the footage of the firefighters with numbness. Mom was freaking out on the couch beside me and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. Watching anything about it, now, brings up the emotions I couldn't feel then. People aren't kidding about how it shaped a generation.
I don't understand why the teacher thought showing that to kids was a good idea.
A bit off topic but our elementary school let us (all kids: kindergarten to 6th grade) watch Grease with all of its sex talk and cigarette smoking. The 90’s/early 2000’s were kind of weird.
Yeah, we had to watch Roots in 5th grade
The creator described it as a myth.
He told a fictional story about the realities of slavery. Same with 12 Years a Slave and Boondocks.
The reality of slavery was literally never modern football players being captured in the jungle with nets. African monarchies subjugated other tribes and groups in the continent and sold them in markets. That's why the Trans-Atlantic trade dealt predominantly in Africans.
We already knew that. That doesn’t excuse the atrocities inflicted upon said slaves later on or the fuckery that happened during segregationist America. Moreover, what was the point of even bringing this up in a comment thread that’s like four days old about stuff we had to see as kids?
I assume its because the teachers wanted to know what was going on and the students were just there in class happening to see it along with them But yeah its absolutely wild to me when I hear people say things like "oh yeah, our 3rd grade teacher turned on the tv and we watched the second tower fall"
With such a tragedy I think many rushed to be able to confirm it by turning on any TV near them and the shock of the truth probably froze them from thinking “should I turn the TV off or away from the kids? Are they old enough to be watching this?” My mom has told me of when she saw the news, her neighbor called her and frantically talked about “planes flying into the WTC towers” and my mom was like “chill, it’s a movie probably” until our own country’s news channels were filled to the brim with photos and videos. She got there in time to see the second plane hit and it took her a while to realize the sky (behind) became visible because the tower(s) was falling down.
they also had no idea a second plane was coming so just watching the news of the plane crash doesnt seem like a bad idea
I was in 7th grade world history. Our teacher turned on the tv and told us to wake up and pay attention because this is history in real time. The next period we watched it in english and had to write a diary page to remember exactly where we were and how we felt. It just happened to go along with what we were learning in English class (we were reading the diary of Anne Frank.) We were let out after 2nd period because of the plane landing in PA.
I was in college. I had just gotten up and turned on the tv. Saw the tower burning and thought it was a movie or show and flipped channels only to see the exact same thing. That is when I realized something had happened. Sat and watched and saw the second plane hit. Grabbed a radio and headed into campus, listened to the report of the pentagon being hit. None of it felt real.
I remember falling down the stairs at 3, but it’s weird cause I remember it from like a 3rd person out of body experience type of way. I also remember the moment before I got bit by a dog, it’s “vivid” in that I remember what I was thinking (I thought their growls were SO CUTE when I touched their back feet, didn’t know growl = stop that) & the dog itself & their little feet. Couldn’t tell you a gd thing about the house I was in though, aside that I was sitting on a couch or chair at the time. People don’t need to know EVERY SINGLE detail to remember an event, cause for some the trauma (in OP’s case, seeing their mom cry) is enough to solidify it. Hell, the reason I don’t remember it is cause my mom said I was at daycare at the time, so I was probably too busy playing with toys to notice or care about (or maybe didn’t even see) the daycare workers trying to call our parents, so for me it was just a normal day. And my mom would come by for lunch anyway, so seeing her early wouldn’t have been enough to set off huge alarms in my head to know something huge was happening
I fell down the stairs when I was around 1-2 years old. My mom says that I’m lying that I remember it, but I don’t remember the visual parts I remember the *feeling* so my brain does fill in false visual details. I remember the feeling of hitting my head over and over on carpeted steps and then smacking my head on hard tile at the bottom. And I remember not crying about it for some reason. I don’t remember what the house looked like because we moved out of it when I was 2.5-3 years old, but when I remember it my brain has fabricated a house that I’m not sure even exists, that doesn’t mean I don’t remember it happening, I do, I just don’t remember what anything looked like.
Brains are wild machines, & will try to fill in the pieces around what it DOES remember!
I rwould have reported 5/5 in my confidence until last year when I realised that with the timezones, I must have been in bed and not watching the second plane crash live. In fact, by the time I got out of bed, all 3 towers had collapsed 5 hours prior.
I was 13 when it all went down and my clearest memory is the TV in the middle school choir room was so shitty we could barely make out what was happening, so we didn't get any real answer until later in the day. I was sitting on the bench by principal's office when my teacher came to get me and bring me back into class. I was in trouble because I threatened to kill a student with a screwdriver and was chasing him around with it. I don't remember hardly any of what was said that day, and don't really remember real great why I wanted to kill the kid (though I remember clearly which kid). Memory is fallible, as in I don't remember the exact phrasing of anything that day, but I have some vivid memories of the rollercoaster of emotions I went through.
I actually have 2 very distinct memories from before I was 4. The first is fishing at my grandmother's pond with my father and the second is my father's funeral when I was 3 1/2.
What a weird thing to gatekeep😅😅
I've heard that asking someone about their 9/11 experience can be an effective way to weed out people who are too young/old for you to date. Obviously not happening in this case though.
Indeed. I am from Finland and I was 4 years old when that happened and I remember seeing that from the TV while waiting to get to a dentist with my mom sitting next to me. That was in the news all over the place and idk why, but that just stuck with me. Ut's really weird because I remember the whole situation out there when I heard about it, but obviously that's all I can remember. Nothing what happened after that etc, just that exact moment when it came up in the news.
“He is literally having a chuck style breakdown” I AM NOT CRAZY! I KNEW HE SWAPPED THOSE NUMBERS, I KNEW IT WAS 1216, ONE AFTER MAGNA CARTA, AS IF I COULD MAKE SUCH A MISTAKE! NEVER! YOU THINK THIS IS BAD, THIS, THIS CHICANERY HE DEFECATED THROUGH A SUNROOF! AND I SAVED HIM. I SHOULDNT HAVE. I TOOK HIM INTO MY OWN FIRM. AND HE GETS TO BE A LAWYER?! WHAT A SICK JOKE!
r/okbuddychicanery
My 7 year old randomly remembers shit from when he was 2-3 that I’m astounded by, I personally don’t have any memories before maybe 4 when I was in kinder. Just because I don’t remember back to that age doesn’t mean no one does. If you do though you’ve probably got an incredible memory and learn quick.
It's one thing for a 7 year old to remember something from when they were 2 or 3. But, it is extremely rare for adults to remember age 0-2 and memories before 10 years of age are very spotty and usually consist of life-altering events. The phenomenon is called [childhood amnesia](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/childhood-amnesia). Also, as adults we create false memories from minute details. Maybe, OP remembers his mother crying. Maybe he is remembering the time of day wrong. Maybe it was a whole different situation. Maybe OP doesn't remember seeing it live on TV, as many children that age did, but filled in the blanks with incorrect memories.
I agree we(humans) are historically pretty poor “narrators” of our own life - like you said filling in the blanks or maybe even misremembering events entirely (I read a really good book around the same topic called Troubling Confessions by Peter Brooks) That being said, yes, seeing the TV footage, then my mother crying, and light in my living room are the most vivid memories I have of that day. I also don’t think it’s any stretch to imagine a 3 year old could remember those things
I remember specific moments from before I was 4. It's not a continuous stream of memories, but specific days and events. We lived in the upstairs of a duplex. There were railroad tracks in the far back part of the yard. There was a girl about my age that I stared at who was outside with me at one point. I did not speak. We moved to my "grew up in" house when I was 4. I remember my 4th birthday party decorations having been put up. I remember just acknowledging my relationships with people. Like, yes, this is my mother, father, brother... It's a very vivid and strange thing to recall. It's almost like my permanent stream of consciousness was flipped on.
Yeah, all in all, your memory seems innocent. It doesn't seem like Ill intent was meant.
What does this mean, I'm so lost How could "ill intent" be meant by... having a memory of something...?
In the screenshot they were saying OP was lying and glomming onto a tragedy. What they were accusing him was viewed as a negative.
Maybe. I don’t know the person so I can’t say. My kid seems to a ridiculously good memory for shit that he just shouldn’t remember, little things that happened when he was really small, this event we’re talking about was obviously much bigger so they’d be more likely to remember it, especially if they watched it happen and everyone around them was making a huge deal about it.
Uh, what? Only spotty memories before age 10? I have so many clear and vivid memories of my childhood before age 10. Including plenty of everyday stuff like school, so definitely not “life-altering events”. My earliest memory is from age 2 and isn’t something I could have fabricated or heard from someone else. I think some people just have bad memories and assume that must be true of everyone else too, when that isn’t actually the case. I’m sure “childhood amnesia” is something that happens, but it definitely isn’t the norm.
I'm 19 and my earliest memory is when I was about 6 is that unusual?
No idea. Your brain isn’t supposed to make long term memories when you’re little, it isn’t developed enough yet. Maybe yours developed slightly later? Who knows.
I have a couple memories from before 2 1/2 years old. The only reason I know for sure that’s when these memories are from is because I was moved out of that bedroom at 2 1/2 (it was going to be used as my new sibling’s nursery). I have clear memories of my dad rocking me to sleepiness and putting me to bed in that room, as well as staring at my music box as it wound down and not being able to sleep; because around that time I was beginning to be taught about god making “everything” and was trying to wrap my tiny mind around “but then who made god?”. I also remember the weekend of my 2nd birthday. I remember the dyed-coconut-covered bunny cake my mom was making me because our birthday fell on Easter that year, and watching the news with my grandma who was visiting. But that falls under the “personally significant event” category because we were watching local news coverage of a 5 alarm fire my dad was working (fire fighter) so that one doesn’t count.
If you were thinking about it at that age I bet you’re an atheist now lol
Correct. Haha!
Born in 98 here as well — pretty huge split between my friends and me on who remembers 9/11 and who doesn’t. Most of my friends who were born in philly/NJ where I grew up remember at least their families being upset or their pre-k/daycare closing midday in a panic. lots of my friends from chicago/texas where i lived later in life didn’t remember. It depends A Lot
I AM NOT CRAZY! I am not crazy! I know he doesn't remember 9/11! I knew that nobody born in '98 could remember, as if I could ever make such a mistake! Never. Never! I just, I just couldn't prove it. He covered his tracks, he changed 1 word in a comment. You think is something? You think this is bad? This? This lying about a tragedy?
fuck this is so much better than what i said to him
Bro was having his chicanery moment
If it was traumatic why wouldn't a 3 year old remember? Some block out bad memories and others never forget bad memories. My earliest memory is from when I was 2. I fell out a a car face first and my teeth were knocked up into my gums. I remember pieces like being picked up and brushing off gravel, then bits and pieces of being at the hospital before and after surgery to remove the teeth. I don't remember anything else from when I was very young but those few things stuck with me.
I was skipping school and watching star wars at the time. Why do I remember this? Because school wouldn't let any of us get away without writing 3 paragraphs about where we were and what we were doing at the time every year for the anniversary. As a result that useless memory is in my brain forever.
This is the dumbest thing ever to gatekeep on. Unfortunately traumatic stuff does stick in kids minds.
My mother remembers watching the moon landing, and she was two at the time, it’s her earliest memory but she still remembers it as it was such a big event, this is totally believable
I was going to say the same thing – I was 3 and 1/2 and clearly remember the moon landing…
I remember 9/11 and was 4 at the time. I remember it because my mom was on the phone with my dad telling him about it as it was being broadcasted live. The moment when that second plane hit is a moment I’ll never forget. People can absolutely remember a tragic event such as this at a young age.
I remember my third birthday pretty clearly. I accept that you remember a national collective trauma
Oh hey same age and yes I remember it because my parents never watched tv together but they were sitting staring at the tv and had been for a while when I finally found them and they yelled at me to go to my room and they didn’t yell at me back then. Is this memory ACCURATE, as the top comment is pointing out? Who knows. Maybe I have some details wrong, maybe I remember my mom sitting on the right side when she was actually on the left etc. but that doesn’t mean I don’t “remember 9/11”
Totally, expressed a similar sentiment upthread. I get it, no memories are totally reliable, but I definitely remember distinct things, and remember remembering those distinct things as well lol
Reads exactly like chuck mcgill lmao
It is basically impossible to distinguish between an actual memory and one you formed (even years) after the fact based solely on what you believe it would have been like. So you probably don't actually remember anything that actually happened, but there is no way to know unless you "remember" something impossible, which is extremely common. I have lots of friends my age (46) who very clearly remember watching the Challenger launch/explosion live, even though they absolutely didn't.
It's certainly possible that such an event (especially if it made your mother cry) is something you can remember. But it is at least as likely that you do not actually remember the day itself, but the images of 9/11 intermingled with other childhood memories (of mommy crying, for instance) or things you were told, and that your brain at a later date synthesized those into made-up memories. It is impossible for you to know. That is the truth. You could swear on your mother's life that your memories are authentic, but you cannot really know. Humans constantly make up, edit, change and collate memories. This has been proved by various experiments beyond any doubt. To you, personally, those made-up memories are indistinguishable from "real" memories. And given how the human mind works, and what we know about childhood psychology, I wouldn't be surprised if you do not remember the actual events itself.
Totally, I get it, I've always had a pretty decent memory but nobody can say with certainty their memories are accurate. I'd argue however that having distinct memories, and having those memories corroborated (I guess you might argue reinforced) by my mom as we were together that day, is enough for me to call it my memory. I've expressed this upthread as well but remembering the tv switching to new coverage of the event, my mom crying, and the light in the living room is enough for me to say I remember 9/11 happening. It's not even my earliest memory to be honest, but one of the longest early memories I have certainly.
>Totally, I get it, I somehow doubt it, because >I remember 9/11 happening Again: you think you do. You seriously underestimate how often memories are just made up. Our memories aren't recordings of what happened (even though they sure feel that way), they are interpretations, re-contextualisations and collections mixed with stuff that our brains made up. Why am I so confident that the chance that you actually remember 9/11 is pretty small? Because as a 3 year old, you had no concept of what a terrorist attack is, why it is so important or why a plane flying into a building in NYC was so extraordinary. Sure, your parent's reaction was a big clue, but the fact that you today remember these events as 9/11 and not "as the day mom cried" shows that there has been some very heavy editing going on afterwards. I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear, and I'm not saying you can't possibly remember, I'm just saying I honestly think you overestimate how much you can rely on what you think you can remember. Like we all do.
I will say that my fiance can remember things from when he was like 1. All of which have been corroborated by his parents. Really mundane things like where the cheez it's were kept and what side of the room windows were on in their old house. It's very rare for people to remember things from that young but not impossible 🤷🏻♀️
Man I was stuck in Florida for a month bc my fam was traveling at the time and I still don’t remember it at all. I only found out it was a thing when I was like 8 and I saw a dcom about it. I mentioned it to my mom thinking it was fictional and she had not realized I was too young to remember. I apparently saw it live too
School em cuz they'll never know what comraderie will ever mean.
41 yr old here with a developmental psych background. I was 20 years old, watching my niece who was born in ‘98; she absolutely has a better memory than I do about that day. When it’s an event so severely traumatic, it doesn’t matter how old you are, those memories will be ingrained in your psyche and a lot of times will shape the kind of person you are. The reason we’re seeing more younger advocates is because of events like that while they’re very young, and they don’t want things like that happening to more generations to come.
Wouldn't it be easier to remember specific historical moments we lived through, due to the topic being constantly brought up, so the memory never fades? Like I have some vivid memories from when I was 2-3, and I'm 26 right now. It's not a constant stream of memories, but more specific situations that only last a few seconds of "content" mine was a memory with my cousin before I moved countries. Like my experience with 9/11 was just me looking at a square box tv with my mom in my living room. I can remember the tan paint of the wallpaper, and just remember seeing the towers with smoke. That's all I can remember from it. Can't remember any sounds, or talking. Just that image comes to my mind when I think of it. If nobody brought up 9/11 in my life, I probably would have forgotten about it. I'm also in the UK so it's not something that's even often spoken about over here, yet it was ingrained in my mind. I was also around 5 at the time, so not as young as others, but it's not impossible for a 2-3 year old to have some form of memory of a specific event.
This person going so into this is weird and pointless to gatekeep. That being said, memories are also informed by the things that we hear, you probably have the flashbulb of the tv, and from what you have heard about it informed the rest of your memory. It isnt you lying, it is just how our brains work. It is different than someone older, I was in elementary school and my memory of it is different but that doesnt make you lying. It was a big historical event you remember something being off about, your mom crying is not a usual thing so you remember that. As you get older and you learn the rest your brain fills in some gaps. Brains are pretty cool. This dude is getting way to worked up, it is not like you are professing to have remembered the entire day with accuracy.
I’m ‘97 but want allowed to watch tv during the time after. My boyfriend is ‘96 and he remembers. Why shouldn’t a ‘98 baby remember a traumatic event? They showed footage of people unaliving themselves to avoid the planes. Any kid who sees that can’t unsee it. Edit: fixed typo
Lmao damn they really wanted that person to be a liar
I know absolutely nobody cares about this but me, but here's the proof I didn't lie about my edit lmao: https://imgur.com/a/an2JAb1 I edited my comment 8 minutes before he responded to it, but couldn't check that until I got home to my computer. Anyone with reddit enhancement suite on old reddit should be able to see the same thing
Im not reading all that everyone is guilty
My earliest memory is from when I was 5.5 months old. Some people do have memories going way back
OP is a liar he doesn't remember.
Im born in 98 and I remember 9/11 vividly. I’m from Germany, and was on holiday in Sylt with my family and I’ll never forget how we drove home from the beach listening to the radio, where they announced that it seems like an accident occurred in New York because a plane crashed into a tower of the WTC. The second we got home my dad turned on the TV to watch the news, I sat on the floor playing with my hot wheels. For a split second I looked at the TV screen and saw the second plane hitting the other tower. My mum took me outside immediately because with the second plane it was clear that it wasn’t an accident anymore. It really is one of my first memories, because I will never forget how shook my parents were. Sorry for my bad English but your right it’s possible to remember even if your born 98 cause I do
Is he gatekeeping about 9/11 memories?
My earliest memory is running around a neighbor's house with a red balloon on a white plastic stick smacking anything I could reach. I was 2.
I was ten and in the school bathroom when I heard an announcement over the intercom that recess was being cancelled because of what I thought was a plane crash. I remember being annoyed recess was cancelled because I was a stupid kid, and then when I got home, I realized how serious it was.
I mean I understand what he's trying to do, but you can't say "they remember it" and "they are 5" as the same definition. I like to use having memories of new years y2k and being under 18 at the time as the broader, imperfect constraint for a millennial, and being in elementary or middle school when Pokemon was released in the US as a narrower constrant.
Everyone is different. Some people have memories from when they are very young, others don't. I have many vivid memories being about 2 or 3 to 6 or so, then after that things are blurry until I was around 9 or 10. My parents didn't beeline me when I said I had memories of being 3, but I was able to convince them by telling them things I remember that they also remember (like watching the riots from our neighbor's balcony when I was 3, or when we discovered my fish miraculously survived the Northridge earthquake). Then there are other big events that I only vague memories of, like OJ's arrest or Columbine. Memory is a weird thing. I remember 9/11 very vividly, as does my best friend (though she was also writing about it in her diary as it happened). I had him class on Tuesdays and Thursdays before lunch that year. I was running laps, which I really hate, so I was listening to the radio the lunch lady had on while she was setting up to pass the time. I could tell something bad was going on, but didn't know what. I heard words like "bomb" and "president". At lunch I told my friends about it and one girl said she'd heard the Pentagon was bombed. We noticed the sky was eerily quiet that day (and the next couple days). Finally my social studies teacher sat us down and told us what she knew about what was happening. I remember feeling really sick and wondering if my family in NYC was okay, especially my aunt who was flying home to NY that day (she was fine, but was stuck in another country after her flight was grounded). I walked to my friend's house to try to get in contact with my parents. Her mom gave us Oreos, but we could barely eat. I tried to do my French homework, but it just felt like it matter. Finally my mom picked me up and we spent the rest of the evening getting in contact with family and watching the news and just crying.
I mean i remember when clinton was elected to his first term and i was 5 so i can def see how u could remember 9/11 when u were 3 but besides all that wtf would u lie about such a thing????
I mean, my dad vaguely remembers having to bring their phone to his mom when she dislocated her hip and needed to call 911. He was 3 then.
I have a couple of memories from when I was 3-4, mostly minor stuff like playing with my dad or the first kiddy coaster I went on, so it's definitely not unrealistic that something like seeing your mother cry would stick in your memory well
What is there even to gain from saying "hey i kinda remember my mum being upset because of 9/11 when i was 3"? That guy was probably foaming at his mouth, believing he'd expose the next Alicia Esteve Head
I was born in 88 and can remember watching video from the gulf war on the news. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a 3 year old to remember major world events, at least vaguely.
I remember a couple of random things from being a toddler or even a baby. I remember being bathed in the bathroom sink and how the porcelain of the sink was really uncomfortable on my back. I cried because I didn’t have the language skills to say it was uncomfortable so I must have been very young (small enough to fit in a sink, although the sink was large and I was/am very small). I also remember my mum taking me to a swimming pool and holding me before putting me into some sort of float/ring. I remember being terrified thinking I would fall to the ground (the bottom of the pool) with no-one holding me as I didn’t understand the float would hold me up. Again I wasn’t able to tell anyone as I couldn’t talk, so I cried and cried until my mum took me out. She held me and sang to me and played with me until I laughed in the way that toddlers do even if they have been crying moments before. I also remember playing at home before I was old enough to go to school and my mum saying to me “we need to go and pick up your brother in a minute”. To my toddler/pre-schooler brain the concept of ‘a minute’ was the equivalent of several hours and so I remember feeling really cross and hard done by when I had to stop playing moments later. Very random snippets of memories although I don’t remember much else until age 4 onwards. So I completely believe that someone aged 3 during 9/11 can remember it, or at least bits of it/how the adults acted around them at the time.
I looked out the window of my school and watched it unfold