Assignment 4: Interviews Activity 4C

Discussion and notes

I have learnt that this is a very valuable method of getting people to talk to you about all sorts of things, from their family and friends, to hobbies, likes and dislikes. As it was only semi-structured the interview seemed quite informal and relaxed which I think put people at ease and allowed them to talk freely. I found that after the interview all the notes I had taken were quite useless as I can still remember virtually everything that was discussed during the interview which surprises me greatly. I think this is because I found what people told me genuinely very interesting.

After the interviews I met up with people who had looked at the same topic using a slightly different series of questions but had similarly not directly approached the question ‘ What object do you treasure the most’. Below is a list of similarities and differences we discovered.

Similarities

• People tend to hold on to things with sentimental value, which perhaps have no physical use such as old gig tickets, photographs, stones and shells, letters and old teddies. People keep them because they associate the object with fond memories. It was noticed that no one spoke of objects they had kept which reminded them of times of sadness. Even objects that had been passed down from deceased relatives remind them of kind, loving, generous people. This is probably because most people don’t want to be reminded of things, which upset them and generally make them unhappy, it is also said that sometimes when people are affected by something severely traumatic they can block out whole parts of their lives? Is getting rid of things that make us unhappy similar to blocking out bad memories?
• Most people tended to feel sentimental objects were more precious that material objects such as laptops and I-pods, although this does tend to differ slightly depending on a persons background.
• It can be assumed that to most people something you work hard for or save up for a long time to purchase such as a laptop is more precious than one given to you?
• But items such as jewellery are more precious if they are sentimental and have memories attached, for example when they are given as a gift or passed down in a family.
• Often things with great sentimental value are useless and worthless such as old wristbands, photos and tickets.
• A person’s most treasured object is likely to change over time for example your favourite toy when you were younger is unlikely to be your favourite object now.

Differences

• Not everyone has sentimental gifts and items passed down in the family to treasure.
• Not everyone has fond childhood memories wish they wish to be reminded of with old photographs, letters notes etc.
• Perhaps therefore differences in a person’s background/upbringing/family/friends/childhood can cause differences in what a person treasures and why they treasure it?
• What is important to one person is unlikely to be important to another as everyone enjoys different things and is likely to associate different things with different people and places. Therefore hobbies can cause differences in what a person treasures. For example, gig tickets and wristbands are only going to be precious to people who enjoy festivals and music. Old ballet shoes are only going to be precious to dancers or those who have attached sentimental value to the shoes.
• Some people are more materialistic that others, some people would rather have close friends and family over designer labels.
• Some people are also hoarders where as other people tend to be very minimalist and would discard old magazines, tickets and ornaments as soon as possible. Therefore differences in character and personality could also affect what different people treasure.