Chris Fernandez
HON 101
Response Essay # 4
11/3/13
Photography is a medium whose central function has remained
the same for many years. The common phrase “A picture is worth
one-thousand words” implies just how powerful of an impact a
photograph can have on those who view it. In this sense, all
photographs posses the same essence, serving to provide members of
society with the chance to not only capture memories but preserve
them as well. A mere glimpse of a meaningful photograph can instantly
transport the photographer or even a random viewer back to that point
in time when the photo was taken. Consider, for instance, the
photograph taken of the sailor and nurse kissing in Times Square
after World War II had just ended. This photograph captures the
excitement, relief, and patriotic pride that proliferated at this
particular point in time. Photographs such as these, however, are
becoming less and less common. Most photographs the average person
views are on social networking websites or applications, such as
Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. Instagram is a social networking
application offered primarily on smart phones. Tumblr is a blogging
website that can aptly be described as a virtual network of diaries.
Facebook is intended primarily for social networking, helping friends
and family to stay in touch as well as offering the ability to learn
more about newly met people. In the context of photography, the
function of these applications and websites is merely to share
photographs and videos with one's followers or friends. The
underlying function, however, is quite different from the former and
painfully apparent. Through the use of Instagram, Tumblr, and
Facebook, the amount of likes one receives for his or her photographs
has become a general indicator of one's hierarchical status within
societal culture, specifically within the realm of adolescents.
Of most social networking applications, Instagram is the
most centrally focused on photographs. Within this application, users
establish accounts that enable them to post photographs. Users are
provided with the opportunity to “follow” other instagram
accounts, which are typically their friends' accounts. There is also
the option to apply a filter to the photographs one has posted for
the sake of enhancing the photograph or diversifying its effect.
However, a key feature of this application is a feature of Tumblr and
Facebook as well. This feature is the ability to “like”
photographs users have posted. For Instagram, this particular aspect
has seemingly become the most significant. As most would already
assume, the major demographic of Instagram accounts belong to teens
in high school. Therefore, many adolescents utilize Instagram as a
gauge for popularity within their particular community. Clearly, the
more “likes” one receives, the more popularity he or she
possesses. This nonsensical method of judgement is unfortunately
employed quite often within educational institutions. An unofficial
scale of rank based on the amount of “likes” one receives is as
follows: Less than five “likes” generally indicates a low status;
greater than five, but less than twenty “likes,” suggests mild
popularity; more than twenty “likes” most likely indicates a high
level of popularity; finally, more than fifty “likes” deems the
user to be especially popular. A major reason as to why this
irrational and unethical system of ranking exists lies within the
application's accessibility. The majority of teens possess smart
phones, which is generally the only way in which one can use
Instagram. Because teens are already addicted to their phones,
Instagram is frequently used, bolstering the implicit use of this
ranking system. This application rarely allows for photographs void
of social connotation. At least on Instagram, a picture is now worth
one-thousand likes as opposed to one-thousand words.
I like that you compare new media to old media and show how photography has changed in our society. I think you could analyze the bigger picture a little more; why do we have so many photographs nowadays in comparison to the past? How has the mass availability of photography changed our society? How do you define popularity- does a complete stranger’s “like” contribute to popularity? Has social media altered our perception of popularity? What does this image-based hierarchy reveal about how we view the world? Has social media created a new hierarchy, or has it just amplified a social system that already existed? Is it good or bad that we use social media to interpret social rank; does this help us understand our roles and positions within our culture, or is this a stressful and unproductive use of technology?
ReplyDeleteI got a little lost when you jumped from the past photographs to current social media to the role of photography in social media and rank. Maybe play with transitions and organization to help make your ideas easier to follow. There are some spots that are a little too detailed; do you really need the part explaining how many likes correspond to each category of popularity, or would it be enough just to suggest that there is a positive correlation between number of likes and user popularity?
Hi, Chris! I like this quotation: “A picture is worth one-thousand words”. I think that you choose very interesting topic for your essay. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI think you can improve your first draft by the concepts of new media. We learned the quotation in the class: "The medium is the message". It is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. While you think about the words of Marshal McLuhan, you can develop the thoughts, why the pictures are media.
Chris I like how you correlated Tumlr, Facebook,and Instagram all applications as database for photography. You can maybe look into why the user of the Instagram would need to enhance the photography of scenery creating an artificial beauty apart from the actual beauty. What does that say for the society? You can also probably mention the pages created that also "rate" people for their looks and connect what message that implies for our society.You may also reference the pages that are specific to particular categories of fitness and beauty. Just some suggestions. But so far your essay is very well written.
ReplyDeleteYou have a great start on analyzing photograph. I like how you can compare and contrasted Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. Many photographs from an actual camera are becoming more rare these days. It’s interesting how you used the likes of a photo on Instagram as a social ladder of a person’s popularity. Maybe you can add something like: With technology evolving with smart phones, people are using their cell phone cameras more than actual cameras. Maybe you can add some opinion of which is better, a cell phone camera as Instagram is only on smart phones or a digital camera. Obviously, for photography, the “message” is worth one thousand words.
ReplyDeleteI think that they way you started of your analyzing was really good. I think they way you went about this paper was good. Even though you main focus was on pictures, I like how you where able to not just talk and compare some of the social media. I think that is a great way to go about it because they all do have a strong hold on people in the scenes that it is something people use constantly as a way to communicate with others and to share their pictures with the world. I think that even though comparing them is a great idea, maybe focusing on one of them and go more in-depth. I think by doing that you could be able to focus and get the point across in a more simpler way.
ReplyDeleteYou made a very interesting point about the fact that these likes upon photos is an indicator if someone is popular or not. Which creates a need to post photos to not satisfy artistic needs to rather social needs which is popularity and acceptance by others. You did a good job connecting the dots of the websites and you had some strong quotes. However I think it would be wise to completely remove the first mention of the quote "a picture is worth a thousand words" out so you can make your last sentence much stronger. I think you can point out how the photos qualities have degraded over time because of this website in general I've seen way too many photos of food.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could try taking things like the system of likes and making that your topic sentences. Like, make that the main topic of a paragraph, then within the paragraph talk about how that relates to different social networking sites. That way you can compare and contrast them side by side within each paragraph rather than dedicating different paragraphs to different sites.
ReplyDelete