Selfies are the new 'self-portrait' - have you heard? They're quick and easy, extended arm shots of the star of the genre - you! Not well thought out but popular nonetheless, selfies immortalize the moment. The majority of selfies are good times, of the moment, sometimes inebriated, moments. The digital files will typically live on your mobile device, that is unless you take the time to transfer the file onto a storage device other than that you keep in you back pocket.
Do selfies have value? They do to the millions of Facebook users. Selfies are visual currency for any social media platform, where once snapped, the image goes along its happy, sharable way onto the Internet via Tumblr, Instagram or other platform of choice.
Selfies are autobiographical memes of sorts. They provide fun at the taker's own expense. They can be compared to snapshot photography. The snapshot genre is meant to be a recording of the time and place of a vacation spot or family gathering. Selfies take that idea, of a timestamp, and simply is applied to oneself. The difference between the two is that snapshot mostly shows the landscape, and selfies, show the self as landscape.
Of the two I prefer landscape. I like to see a place I've never been from the point of view of the photographer. If I were to visit that place, chances of me taking the same photo are slim. The time of day and weather conditions would have to be identical and even if they were, how can my image be similar to one before?
Selfies cannot be duplicated for obvious reasons. No two people are alike. I prefer self-portraits over selfies because they seem to contain a higher level of concept than just a 'snap' of a mobile device.
Selfies have become increasingly popular due to the proliferation of digital technologies. See the following article by Casey N. Cep on how that came to pass: http://tinyurl.com/mkfnpep
Do you find value in selfies?
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Friday, July 19, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Social Media | Digital Divide
For as much as I've learned about connectivity using social media, I've learned just as much about disconnection and apathy. I am admittedly a news junkie and if I could, I'd be hooked up to NPR all day. It's information that educates, that informs that tells me what is happening in the world. Today is not a good day - people are being violently assaulted because they have an opinion.
What's different about today? In some parts of the world, today is about disruption. Not the industry specific kind that comes about as a result of technology. That's what is so sad. The very tools referenced in 'Groundswell' by Forrester Research executives Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, that emphasize emerging social technologies, also show a disinterested, audience who may feel what's happening in Turkey right now "Doesn't effect me!" Facebook doesn't show many posts in my network, even though I'm connected to several journalists and otherwise empathetic people.
What started out as a protest to stop bulldozing of Gezi Park, an open green space, turned into scenes of activists being hosed down by military in what looked like open warfare. In the instant when violence breaks out, social media works well to transmit images, video and twitter feeds, but in a long view, of civil unrest, where does social media contribute to telling the whole story?
It' s only when a bomb goes off in Boston, or a giant structure like the the World Trade Center, falls down, or a hurricane torn town out west do networks light up with 24-hour coverage and Red Cross calls for help. After the crisis, traditional media such as broadcast cable television or a documentary video seems to do a better job. I want to know what the outcome is as much as I react to the immediate devastation.
There's room for both technologies - traditional corporation models like broadcast media, and newer, more instant communications of social media. There shouldn't be an either, or. Each fills a purpose and together would serve the public as well as the stockholder. That business model is not an optimist's hopeless dream, but a realist in a real world possibility.
What's different about today? In some parts of the world, today is about disruption. Not the industry specific kind that comes about as a result of technology. That's what is so sad. The very tools referenced in 'Groundswell' by Forrester Research executives Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, that emphasize emerging social technologies, also show a disinterested, audience who may feel what's happening in Turkey right now "Doesn't effect me!" Facebook doesn't show many posts in my network, even though I'm connected to several journalists and otherwise empathetic people.
What started out as a protest to stop bulldozing of Gezi Park, an open green space, turned into scenes of activists being hosed down by military in what looked like open warfare. In the instant when violence breaks out, social media works well to transmit images, video and twitter feeds, but in a long view, of civil unrest, where does social media contribute to telling the whole story?
It' s only when a bomb goes off in Boston, or a giant structure like the the World Trade Center, falls down, or a hurricane torn town out west do networks light up with 24-hour coverage and Red Cross calls for help. After the crisis, traditional media such as broadcast cable television or a documentary video seems to do a better job. I want to know what the outcome is as much as I react to the immediate devastation.
There's room for both technologies - traditional corporation models like broadcast media, and newer, more instant communications of social media. There shouldn't be an either, or. Each fills a purpose and together would serve the public as well as the stockholder. That business model is not an optimist's hopeless dream, but a realist in a real world possibility.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Does Resume Define Self?
If you've ever had the thrill of working alongside someone you enjoy, you know a job doesn't get any better than that. A good friend Tom and I would drink coffee during the night shift, waiting for news to break. We'd process images using PhotoShop 2.0 on Mac computer stations that replaced Dektol and Rapid Fixer, chemicals that were used for black and white film and print processing before the phenomenon of digital imaging replaced traditional photography workflow.
Our respective titles were Lab Technicians and as they morphed into Digital Technicians we recognized we were working in an industry that was quickly changing. Using what was new to us then, the software tools of PhotoShop quickly advanced to newer versions of 3.0 and all its subsequent iterations, we'd verify and often write captions (all pertinent data) to accompany the photography using the IPTC fields for the next day's newspaper. There were deadlines to meet and beat and it was a pure adrenalin rush to file the story and pictures.
We sometimes waited for things to happen, for the photographers to return with their rolls of film from various assignments - from shoot outs to fires to fashion shows to a celebrity sighting....whatever and wherever the pulse of a news story took place, we would be there - to get the picture processed, caption information verified and transmitted to the receiving end where it would be placed into the layout and sent to press.
Those days remind me of today's Twitter fever and the occasional mad dash to be the first to tweet and beat out traditional news sources. What was once an industry specific tendency - to rush and scoop the competition, is now a ubiquitous normal way everyone operates. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Scoop.it, Digg and so many more social media sites, too many to list here, are web platforms that many twenty-year olds take in stride, much like what I favored at twenty. What was 'trending' then was just as interesting to me at the time, only it wasn't called 'trending' but instead, new things were 'cool' but really meant, 'hot' and was simply whatever was in style at the time.
Tom would joke as we walked the halls of the New York Newsday office building, "Beam me up," referring to Star Trek technology that would transport Spock, Captain Kirk or any member of the crew USS Enterprise to "Get me out of here." He meant, "When will the night end?" But for me, being there as part of the news cycle was so about being valued and important and part of the process that all I could do was enjoy, enjoy and enjoy.
That was some time ago and since then I've added a few bells and whistles to my resume. The skills I've acquired only half represent the motivation behind job choices. That is a whole other subject for a new blog post! My resume, like my life, is a work in progress. Job descriptions are a tidy sum of our capabilities. I've always wondered about the things I haven't done. Suggestions are welcome:
Our respective titles were Lab Technicians and as they morphed into Digital Technicians we recognized we were working in an industry that was quickly changing. Using what was new to us then, the software tools of PhotoShop quickly advanced to newer versions of 3.0 and all its subsequent iterations, we'd verify and often write captions (all pertinent data) to accompany the photography using the IPTC fields for the next day's newspaper. There were deadlines to meet and beat and it was a pure adrenalin rush to file the story and pictures.
We sometimes waited for things to happen, for the photographers to return with their rolls of film from various assignments - from shoot outs to fires to fashion shows to a celebrity sighting....whatever and wherever the pulse of a news story took place, we would be there - to get the picture processed, caption information verified and transmitted to the receiving end where it would be placed into the layout and sent to press.
Those days remind me of today's Twitter fever and the occasional mad dash to be the first to tweet and beat out traditional news sources. What was once an industry specific tendency - to rush and scoop the competition, is now a ubiquitous normal way everyone operates. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Scoop.it, Digg and so many more social media sites, too many to list here, are web platforms that many twenty-year olds take in stride, much like what I favored at twenty. What was 'trending' then was just as interesting to me at the time, only it wasn't called 'trending' but instead, new things were 'cool' but really meant, 'hot' and was simply whatever was in style at the time.
Tom would joke as we walked the halls of the New York Newsday office building, "Beam me up," referring to Star Trek technology that would transport Spock, Captain Kirk or any member of the crew USS Enterprise to "Get me out of here." He meant, "When will the night end?" But for me, being there as part of the news cycle was so about being valued and important and part of the process that all I could do was enjoy, enjoy and enjoy.
That was some time ago and since then I've added a few bells and whistles to my resume. The skills I've acquired only half represent the motivation behind job choices. That is a whole other subject for a new blog post! My resume, like my life, is a work in progress. Job descriptions are a tidy sum of our capabilities. I've always wondered about the things I haven't done. Suggestions are welcome:
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