So, social media has become our main outlet of
communication. It is our source to brag, communicate, or establish
relationships with distant friends, family, or strangers. PBS News Hour tweeted
that there was a project initiated where the researcher collect over 1.2
billion photos from facebook profiles around the world. It is an interesting
project that brings to light the world we live in today, the dependency that we
have on our social media sites. I am guilty of over sharing myself. I love
showing off my son on my private facebook profile, but it is private. The
project gives people from around the world who would never have crossed paths a
way to see the profile picture and information (public profiles) on the
website. Check out the link provided:
What do you think about the project? How do you interpret
the project? Does it represent society today? It seems like just a bunch of
photos, but it is something remarkable because it took the unknowing
participation of billions of people for her to create a project like this.
This project reminds me of Anthropology and Youtube, a documentary/commentary on how this society connects via Youtube/social media. You can check it out at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU. Contrasting this project and Michael Wesch's, I find this less active. Yes, you can click on random people's profiles, but except for a picture and a link, it's not really interactive... unless you send a friend request and you're accepted. I think the project is aiming to show that 1 billion people have one thing in common, Facebook. How we use it may be different, but there are multiple Facebook communities and you can plug into different ones to find out where you fit in.
ReplyDeleteWow, this project is crazy. It was really cool to look at, however, I'm not so sure how I feel about my face being on there with access to my Facebook profile. Like you, my profile is private. Still, it leaves you a little uneasy knowing that so many people can access your private information so easily. Personally, I do not like the fact that as you stated "social media has become our main outlet of communication." At the same time I do know it is true. I had actually deleted my Facebook profile a while ago because I did not like all the drama surrounding it and didn't feel that I needed to know every detail of everyone's life, or that they needed to know mine. Quickly this became a problem. While not having a Facebook kept me out of a lot of drama and no longer distracted me from doing more productive things, I was out of the loop. I wasn't just out of the social loop, I started to not know what was going on with school as far as class projects were concerned, I was never able to attend club events because I didn't know about them, etc. While everyone had my phone number and email nobody used it. Most communication nowadays is through Facebook, a sad but true reality.
ReplyDeleteSociety fascinates me constantly! Social media has taken over social interactions and socialization with full force. The younger generation hardly know how to communicate if there is not twitter or Facebook platform. I think meeting people around the world via social networking is interesting and scary at the same time. I reminds me of when my family first got internet connected. We has AOL, and thought it was amazing we could talk to people across the globe. This is the same, but taken to the extreme. Individuals can see our pictures and send us a message, even if we do not want to share our information, or be contacted. The swift growth of the social media world is bound to grow. Unfortunately, this will lead to less people being truly social with others. I love your cartoons for each post!
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting project. Similar to the '6 degrees of separation, it takes billions of pictures organizing them together, then displaying them to the world. The argument might be made that this invades a person's privacy. That their photograph is being displayed to others without their permission. However, I find that if you are willing to post your picture, that represents you even if someone views your 'private profile' who is not on your friends list, it still is a representation of yourself. Any argument that such a violation exists is kind of a moot point. What has manifested over the last decade or so has connected billions of people all over the world. Where man was once a individual who grew up knowing a limited number of people, a person can interact at any time with whomever they wish; a fascinating development over the last several years.
ReplyDelete