My Artifacts

At the beginning of the school year, I wrote a blog titled "American Artifacts" about what the main things that will represent our society in the future if we were all to disappear. Now, as I work on completing my junior year, I've decided to think about the artifacts that represent the past year of my life.

1. My Facebook page- Though parents often complain about Facebook as an unneeded distraction in teens' lives, I think Facebook is a great way to record ourselves during different times in our lives. Not only is it a virtual photo album, but it also saves our conversations with friends so in then future we can remember who we were friends with and what we used to like talking about.


2. My iPhone- I am one of those crazy people who saves every text and writes down every appointment or event in my iPhone calendar. In 20 years I will be able to look back and see my exact schedule for getting ready for prom or what times I worked during the summer.

3. THIS BLOG!- Out of all the things listed above, I think this blog will be the most telling artifact about who I was during my junior year of high school. Each blog entry represents exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote it and what things stood out to me the most
during that week. I can't wait to look back and read this blog in 10 or 20 years and remember
exactly what I thought as a 17 year old.

Now, after writing this post, I see that all of the three artifacts I chose are forms of technology. I think this shows what a technology-based society we are. Technology will definitely help us remember our lives with more detail than possible before. Do you see this as a good thing or an invasion of privacy?

American Artifacts

This week in class, we were confronted with the (fake) "death" of our teacher, Mr. Bolos. Our assignment was to write a biography of him based solely on artifacts, interviews, and the internet. When I first heard about the assignment, I was sure it was going to be impossible to find out much beyond the basics, but boy was I wrong! His large imprint left on the world got me thinking. If one person leaves this many artifacts when they die, how many artifacts would the US leave behind (if everyone in the country suddenly disappeared)?
Take a second to think about the top 4 "artifacts" you think America would leave behind. Here's my list...

1) McDonalds- Even though it's sad that this is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think about America, it is definitely something that tells you a lot about how modern day Americans live their lives. From this artifact, future historians would gather that we are fat and eat food that doesn't ever decompose

2) Our major cities- Now, this one sheds a much more positive light on America as a whole. It shows that we are advanced and are smart enough to build skyscrapers as tall as the Empire State Building and  Sears Tower.

3) The Statue of Liberty- One of the most iconic things in America, the Statue of Liberty definitely makes sense to the majority of the American population. But, if aliens were to stumble upon Lady Liberty, they would have no clue what to make of the giant green woman.

4) The Internet- This is the artifact that completely changes the game. Since we have internet and records of nearly everything possible, future historians will definitely have a lot easier time learning about us than we did about ancient civilizations.