Headline, September 10 2021/ ''' '' SCREEN SHOTS SCREAM '' '''

''' '' SCREEN SHOTS

 SCREAM '' '''

!WOW! & TOOT : PROUD PAKISTAN has had three miracle renaissances : 1. Its Creation. 2. The World Students Society, and No 3. O ''Captain Imran Khan becoming the Prime Minister. Take a screenshot!

SCREENSHOTS REVEAL OUR TRUE SELVES : the images are like fossils preserved in amber that allow us to stop and reflect.

I believe that everyone collects something. When my aunt in Taipei decided to renovate, - her daughter, desperate to seize the opportunity to cleanse the apartment, asked to throw away a small Buddha statue that once belonged to my grandfather.

My aunt told her to ask our grandmother, another collector, who told my exasperated cousin that for the sake of spiritual amity, she was allowed to dispose of the statue in a rushing river.

I've saved texts in which my mom wished me a happy birthday the day before my birthday; search results of the time I googled ''when did people start booing''; a message from a friend telling me, ''woke up thinking about Anne Frank tik tok meme''; a still from the show ''Terrace House'' in which the subtitle reads ''bagel burgers''.

I have screenshots of Daily Mail articles about Amelia Earhart to prove a friend's point that ''people still talk about her.'' I made a montage with a moving soundtrack of screenshots of email responses I've received in my years as co-secretary of my union :

''UNSUBSCRIBE''; I don't know what this is'' ''Please do not have the audacity to send me unsolicited emails.''

WHEN I'M CURLED UP IN BED AT NIGHT - and I want to reminisce, I go first to my screenshots folder, not my photo albums.

Photos, which are often poised and polished, have a sense of exteriority to them; they are meant to be shown and shared. And the traditional methods of self-capture - a diary, a scrapbook - feel inadequate in the digital age, when so much we live happens online.

So much of our digital world feels ephemeral by nature - passing by us at warp speed, but screenshots are like little fossils preserved in amber that allow us to slow down and capture pieces of our online lives.

And if memories are what makes us human, then our screenshots tell a story about who we are in the digital age.

Think about digital Lois Lowry's ''The Giver,'' in which the protagonist, Jonas is saddled with the task of receiving all of human memory in order to be able to advise his community; if Jonas were to look through my screenshots folder, I'm certain he would have advised the town to to give up on humanity immediately.

But that's OK. In many ways your screenshots are like your photos; personal and deployed for a select audience.

In fact, what could be considered the first-ever screenshots, in 1959, was of a $238 million military computer. On its screen was not any sort of equation or tactical diagram but rather a rendering of a pinup girl.

As a historical moment this makes sense to me. If screenshots are a reflection of who we are, then there is nothing more universally human than appreciation for low-res smut.

On the other hand, screenshots, which are usually taken during the quiet, intimate moments we spend navigating the world on our computers and phones, are hauled out from the messy internal guts of our private lives.

Many of my screenshots were taken subconsciously and have long been forgotten about. Revisiting them is both delightful and humiliating - without them, so much of my existence would be forgotten, lost to the ethereal megabytes of the Internet.

I relish the chaos of my screenshots folder.

''Surgeon!'' I scream when I sell all my terrible jokes and memes and receipts spilled out in front of me ''I can't operate on this boy, he's my son!''

There are some screenshots I return to more often than others. Nestled amid memes and subtweets is a screenshot of a text that I once sent in the August of a certain year, asking someone I loved in confusing ways whether she felt anything in return.

I rarely think about this text anymore, but there was a time when I would pull it up at night and read her response over and over again. Repetition I've found always had a way of stimulating truth.

Things are different now, less confusing, so I recently deleted the screenshot, which is, to one's surprise, always painful for me. I know some screenshots must go, but there is just something unceremonious about tapping on the little icon of a garbage can.

I have this in common with the generation of collectors that have come before me, I understand what my grandmother means - for the sake of spiritual amity, I wish I could dispose of my beloved screenshots in a rushing river, too.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Great Writings, Technology, Practices and Life, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Clio Chang, a freelance writer covering politics, culture and media.

With respectful dedication to O'' Captain, Imran Khan - H.E. the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the People of Pakistan, the Global Founder Framers of !WOW! - The World Students Society - for every subject in the world. See Ya all prepare and register for great global elections  on : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless