What are memories? What do you think they mean? Do you have any positive, or even negative memories that you want/need to share? Why do we have memories? I just was thinking about all of the experiences and memories I've accumulated in my life so far, and was thinking about what they meant and why do I remember some and not others. Thanks for taking the time to look at this, or even comment. (Side note: I was listening to the song Memories Pt 2 Ft. John Legend by Big Sean while thinking about this. Great song)

You actualy do have all your memories in your database(brain) but the usable part of the brain is the conscious one. All the memories you can remember are in there. Mostly, people remember the things they can relate to something, schoking, traumatic... Think about it people remember only the things that they find important for example you'll rarely see a person who doesn't remember their wedding. All the memoriees you "don't" remember are in your sub-conscious everything you ever saw, heard, touched, tasted, smelled and 99.98% of your dreams probably even more.

IMO, memories are difficult to decipher. It's too easy to fabricate your own memories. I find that it's often (*coughmostofthetimecough*) not a good idea to trust your memories. I wish I wrote in my journal more frequently :L

Tokarus, I don't always remember important things, and often, I remember the simpler things better. It's different for everyone. Some people blank out traumatic events. Others avoid thinking about it for so long that they can't work out details. It's the same with others.

I find that I remember best when another person was involved. It's too easy to unintentionally fabricate what happened to yourself :I Thus, I usually don't trust my memories unless I can back them up with someone else.

It's the same with other situations, I mean. Everybody remembers things a little differently.

As stories are passed down, people remember being told different things. Passing on memories is kind of like playing telephone - by the time it gets to the end, it's almost completely different.

Well i know speaking from personal experience when i was 3 i woke up one morning with complete amnesia except for who my mom was and what my name was. Ever since then i have been forgetting more and more of my past the older i get. Right now i am 16 going on 17 and i can only remeber really stuff from when i was 13. Memories are precious in my opinion and significant because they could remind you of better times when yo uare down or remeber a friend who you dont see anymore. Memories also define who we are as they contain our past experiences.

<<5 yea it's like the past makes you who you are
if you want to solve your problem you could try lucid dreaming since it should all be there, in your sub-conscious.
<<4 I agree with youon the first paragraph, but you don't believe yourself?? Isn't that a little sad and stupid?? I mean if you won't trust yourself who willl you trust then??

For me, I block out/repress some memories because their too painful to hold on to, but I keep them in mind because maybe someday they might come in handy.

To me, all my memoried are precious, even the sad and painfull ones I try to surpress most of the time. They make me who I am.

>>6 No, it's actually a pretty smart thing to do. If you put all your trust in memories that can easily be manipulated by dreams and subconscious ideas, then you're pretty stupid. That's where derpy situations come up. You say, "I remember [xxxx]!" Everyone else says, "But THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN!" You, "BUT I REMEMBER IT." Them, "THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT HAPPENED." You, "I REMEMBER IT, SO IT MUST HAVE HAPPENED!!!" Them, "=_= goddamn, man."

And yeah, I used to do that a lot.

Also, IMO, you can't trust anybody anyway :I But that's completely different than not trusting memories. If you write things down, then there is no doubt about the smaller details of events; but blindly trusting that your finer memories are fact usually isn't a good idea.

I'm agreeing with Barabi with this. I can speak on personal experience that not all things happened the way you remember them if they happened at all. I don't trust my memories at all. Memories are twisted by feelings, ideas, stories, and some times purposely by other people. For instance, I thought I remembered watching my grandfather die only to be told I wasn't actually there. I was told what happened, the overwhelming regret of not being there corrupted my brain, and, in order to cope with that, I created that memory. Things like that have happened to me many times before.

Back to the questions in >>1. Memories are a collection of experiences stored in the brain to be used and reflected upon latter on in life when needed. Most of the time, they mean absolutely nothing. Memories may be special to the person and may hold the key about different emotional problems they're facing but beyond that, they're just stored data(some of which may not have even happened). We use memories to adapt to surroundings. If you survived a similar situation before, you will use similar tactics to survive the situation at hand.

Barabi has a damn good point, memories can be easily fabricated so write them down.
Getting back on topic with this thread though.

I remember this girl from back when I was 4 or 5 years old, I remember her smile and the look in her eyes, I remember this shirt that she loved to wear and these sandals that she loved, they were white with a single white flower on each sandal, the flower had a pink bud in the middle and a vary slight sprinkle of sparkles on the petals. I don't know why, but those sandals are what I remember the most, as well as walking together while the sun was setting, her older brother and my older brother both said "Did you know, that if both of you have lines on your hands that go together, you will grow up and get married with each other too?" because her and I would always hold hands wherever we went, we looked at each others palms at that time too.
It's a happy memory, innocent and cheesy, I remember it but I don't know why, probably just because it was one of the times that I was truly happy.