Intro on the blog

Due 1/30

READINGS

John Berger Ways of Seeing Ch7 on BLACKBOARD

·       “Publicity, it is thought, offers free choice.”

This encapsulates twitter, IG, Facebook, any public platform where we’re heard and recognised, free to post whatever we want to. There is, however, a backlash for some people when they do post what they feel, as comment arguments and twitter wars are much too common. Your free choice doesn’t make you exempt from backlash. I feel this is very important in today’s world of free information and a lack of privacy.

·       “Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance.”

Again, social media allows this internal desire to be adored and liked to thrive, but businesses have capitalised on this. There are faux-luxury experiences people can attend, such as sitting in a fake private jet seat, or even buying a fake Gucci bag for the bragging rights of such splendour. With every like or retweet, we can become conditioned to judge ourselves based upon this and have our emotions changed dependant on it; if we have plenty of likes, it was a successful post and people envy the content. If it didn’t reach the average, it was unsuccessful, despite all of the likes it attained so far and your content isn’t enviable.

Susan Sontag excerpt from On Photography http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/onPhotographyExerpt.shtml

·       “Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.”

To me, I read this that a flower in a park may be a sign that the park is well kept and receives care. If there’s bad graffiti all over a window, the area may not receive care. But these two things don’t say anything about the world itself in entirety, but the world that they belong to, perhaps. But these things can occur anywhere in the right conditions, such as a bad area with a little plot of grass no one tramples over, letting a flower grow without trouble, and a nice area in the dead of the night with an impulsive young person looking for some creative outlet without considering the consequences may think window is the best canvas for their first masterpiece. An expensive branded bag can be owned by anyone, technically, as it is available for everyone to by. The condition is if you have the money or not. It exists, but not necessarily you're world if you can't finance it, or don't desire those sorts of things. 

·       “That age when taking photographs required a cumbersome and expensive contraption -- the toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed -- seems remote indeed from the era of sleek pocket cameras that invite anyone to take pictures.”

I feel as though I fit into this; I love to travel, and despite owning a few good quality cameras in my life, none of their quality can surpass the convenience of the smartphone camera. A large bag with a variety of different lenses and a tripod to lug around wherever I went made me feel vulnerable, yelling out “I’m a tourist, please rob me, I won’t know what to do or how to report the crime here!” With a smart phone, I’m still stunned by the quality of the camera, as well as able to whip it out and stow it away again the moment inspiration comes along. I like to take pictures I think look good and I’ll admit I sometimes put a bit of effort into getting a nice shot, but my father who is approaching 65 takes pictures whenever he wants, usually it’s blurred, out of focus, or the subject isn’t even centred, but he’s pleased with the pictures and enjoys taking them. This is a joy some people wouldn’t experience because they weren’t interested enough to commit the hundreds of pounds that a camera used to cost.

Intro

Who do you think you are?

My role within the mass media includes several titles, as is the case with most people; none of us are only creators of media, or consumers, or reviewers. I like to believe we all have favoured options, but we participate in all aspects of the modern technological junctions in today's world. I think my roles specifically involve, first and foremost, consuming. I have favoured news sources, artists, music producers, things that I like and actively look for. I do this much more than I create text posts, statuses, IG posts, memes, anything. With some social networking sites, doing this is easier than others. In the cases of things like Tumblr or Instagram, it’s much more first nature to share an image, whereas Facebook and Twitter are a little more text based for some people. In my group of friends, I find that people don’t necessarily just choose one social media platform, I have accounts on most of them myself.

I’ve usually seen the activists referred to in two ways; negatively, as thugs or trying to stir up something, or positively, such as artists who would make us look at something critically. Banksy comes to mind for the positive take people usually give them. This is ironic considering their pessimistic outlook on the media and the scandals they’ve performed as art pieces in full view of the media. The artists who are demonised usually attack something more systematic, something the majority of people may not have initially considered as bad. I'd personally seen the art that came with the Black Lives Matter movement considered wasted talent dedicated to something people were implying to be pointless and rejected what the art was trying to explain. It was criticised on the basis of the content rather than the way it explained; by the nature of being controversial, it was immediately rejected.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/07/13/the-most-powerful-art-from-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-three-years-in/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7e54ee8b08bb

As of right now, I don't necessarily think I use my social networking for serious activism. I follow a lot of feminist pages on facebook, and I'll engage in discussions with people who are open to considering different ideas, but I've not been to too many rallies or protests. In fact, the only protest I've been to was for an Independence referendum in my hometown in Scotland due to a lack of recognition of our wishes as Scottish people from the English government down in Westminster. I'll occasionally post my thoughts on IG too such as when I visited Auschwitz and was faced with the proof of sheer concentrated and purposely constructed hatred or the New England Aquarium's conservation efforts.

With this class, it's a personal goal to participate more in sharing my thoughts and participating in activism. I've had a twitter account since 2013, but it had about four tweets on it from the same year and nothing else. I'd like to model this into a more professional account directly related to my career goals, hopefully in partnership with the final project I will be graded on.