Somni Porta
“For Millennia,humans have used media to represent ourselves. Children draw stick figures with a stick in the sand. Stone Age Australians blew ocher dust around their hands to leave marks in a cave. Vikings carved runes on sticks to tell the world their names (pg 2).”
From the start of this article, the idea that I have of social media is how we define it. When I think of social media, the first thing I think about is anything electronic; phones, computers , tablets … anything related to technology. But this article took a spin. This passage makes us read the digest of the breakdown of social media. The following are some question I would like me readers to consider:
- What element actually makes something social media?
- In what context can we use the term social media ?
- What are the three main ways you display social media?
Me being who I am (a person who must know the meaning behind everything), I actually went and defined the terms social, media, and social media.
Social (adjective): living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation.
Media: (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, that reach or influence people widely.
Social Media: noun (usually used with a plural verb) Digital Technology. websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts.
To my understanding of the reading and the definition of all three terms, it is a great difference between each term. Social, you definitely get the humanistic feel behind it. Companionship and community gives me that feeling of people joining together to get a better understanding of each other. As for media, I get that feel of both the humanistic and technical aspect of representations. As for social media, the terms together makes it feel more distance, and more screen to face, looking down and showing off.
#iftheygunnedmedown
I also thought this was a very powerful passage with this article. I think this aspect of the article really focuses on both representation and presentation. We already got the articles opinion on this matter being more on the representation side, I want to take a look at the presentation. At some point, the “news media” feels as though they can present findings of information to give a sort of visual backstory of those involved in news.
I actually did a presentation on a topic like this an undergrad: Media Has Shaped Our Perception of Race and Crime! Please feel free to check out my slideshow presentation before I fall in love with Prezi!
Oh hi Kendall!
Lastly for this article, I would like to touch base on the Kendall Jenner picture. #Sidenote: I was on of those billions of followers that liked the picture! When recalling seeing this picture on Instagram, I don’t think I look at it in this much depth as the article does. Taking into consideration the comments made by the author of their understanding and representation of the Ms. Jenner’s picture, I can now never unseen what the author describes. On my side notes on my hard copy of the reading I wrote for the first passage on page 5:
“This interpretation is deep! But to those who may have liked it probably did not take it in that deep.”
Terms to consider:
Self-representation, Representation, Presentation, Semiotic , Denotation, Connotations, Mimesis, Blog, Influences, Monetize
Filters: What does this word truly mean?
“Technically the coffee filter does stop the ground beans from getting to the pot beneath, but the point of a coffee filter is to add flavor to water by slowing its flow through the coffee beans (pg. 27).”
I like the format of this article going back and forth between the different types of filters. The author goes from talk about physical objects as filters, electronically filters on hats, and the filters we have in real life. When combining all of these ideas together, I think all the different terms and contexts that filters are used has a common ground; using this idea around the word filter contain, eliminate, or fix something. This is why I choose to quote the passage from the article above.
Quiet honestly, I think a lot of people take the funnest out of the use of filters. In today’s society, we live in a culture the likes to filter out all the “flaws” that are meant to be; in both a literal and context matter.
Twitter Hastag challenge: #filtermeout
How about we try using the term filter in three different context on twitter. We use filter in different was and post it on twitter. I am sure how we are going to do it, but it was just a thought in my head!
Terms to consider:
Filter, algorithmic, defamiliarise, Instagram, apps, culture
Making the connection
In my final thoughts for these two readings, my brain had its own idea of combining all the terms I collected: Social Media, representation, and filters. Put together, the terms play on each on the idea of how people want others to view them. Either being know as the funny ticktock girl who plays with the voice filters, the flawless kid next door who uses the airbrush filters to hide all the blemishes, or the person who goes through life filtering out all the bad so that the good could be represented. All these ideas of trying filter this world and others perception of oneself kind of sums up the society we are currently living and the future we can expect to have.
