[Written December 2021]
This morning I woke up, re-downloaded Facebook onto my phone, proceeded to scroll and interact for 45 minutes, then re-deleted the app.
The appearance of social media platforms in the chronology of forms of human communication is an evolving field of study. There is tremendous promise and peril inherent in each platform. The dangers are not technological, they are undoubtedly human. We use the technology of the platforms to both provide an opportunity for connection and curtail what we have decided is the worst human behavior between and among us now amplified in the digital realm. Tools are a functional, aspirational and always flawed, because they are human, a reflection of us- the best and the worst of us.
Social media sharing is a form of microblogging. With the widespread adoption of analog then digital communication technologies we developed tools that mirrored existing ways of communication. In person conversations became phone calls then voicemails, then robocalls, then texting then chat bots. Newsletters, magazines and independent publications in print became blogs and interactive information portals. Live theater became movies, then TV, then onto recorded media, then streamed and on demand. Changes to broadcast media led to self-broadcasting in the form of vlogging, then broadcasting live from a smartphone from anywhere with connection to the internet to anyone with a connection to the internet who found you interesting enough to watch. These tools are amazing and yet many humans still cherish the in person connections, even with these tools. Video may have killed the radio star but the telephone didn’t kill the in person coffee date conversation, and thankfully movies did not kill live theater. The advent of additional communication tools has broadened and refined our human experience. Our humanity remains, the perceived and socially accepted good, the bad and the ugly- amplified.
We have developed so many different tools to accomplish the end goal of a community conversation. A conversation between individuals, the dissemination of information from one individual to many, the socially constructed learning process of sharing ideas and refining understanding for a common definition- all of it is about connection.
Each social media platform is based on the anchor of different types of sharing. Sometimes we want share things that are ethereal in the moment and should not be recorded or widely shared with others. Sometimes, we want to share just our words and we want them there for future reference. Sometimes, we want to share what we are seeing and are building a visual portfolio. Sometimes, we want to share both together. We have built platforms to share ideas in a time when we are still struggling with systems built to define individual rights and share collective responsibility.
Microblogging can be sharing reduced to the lowest common denominator- the headline, the sales pitch, the brag, the complaint, the rejection or affirmation, the performative questioning or stance, the crowdsourcing of information within a curated audience, the visual receipts of bad behavior amplified for public shaming, the pithy or trite or scandalous. The micro in opposition to the macro demands a stripping away of complexity, or context, that might inform a greater understanding or challenge a status quo. Mirroring our reptilian brain’s use of pattern recognition as a shortcut to understanding microblogging is one of the most useful tools in reinforcing our echo chambers, reaffirming our (often unquestioned or unexamined) worldview, and reducing our risk of having our beliefs or understanding about ourselves, the world or others challenged in anyway. When we consider all of this under the lens of intent and impact I wonder how can microblogging for the sake of itself be anything other than what I’ve described here?
If the micro is the point in this type of sharing isn’t this also favoring and cultivating communication between and among us that stays in the realm of both the superficial and performative?
Microblogging, like all digital sharing, is it intentionally curated expression of self. There are no accidental posts. There is no such thing as the ‘I just woke up like this’ selfie. The act of picking up a device, capturing a moment, and navigating toward publication is all an act of intention and an act of curation. As any photographer or student of the visual arts can tell you what is outside of the frame is equally as important as what we choose to capture inside of the frame. When you choose to share I am most curious about what you have chosen to omit. I know you’ve made a choice and I’m curious about the why.
What is your intent when you are sharing? What are you sharing, why are you sharing and for whom? What would happen if you didn’t share?
What is the impact of your consumption of the sharing of others? Was it shared with you 1:1 or in a broadcast on a platform? Is it in a group organized around a particular subject? Did you encounter that share or a digital “wall” or “feed” that is a chronological repository of that all that person or organization’s sharing broadcast to all their curated audiences? Were you their intended audience? How do you know? Does knowing any or all of this information affect the way you feel when you are consuming the information others have shared?
Sharing changes the zeitgeist. Maybe.
There is a school of thought that I have been a part of that espouses that by sharing our authentic selves we change change societal perceptions, broaden understanding and combat stereotypes. (There is a whole other essay that could be inserted here about the use of the word authentic and the translation of that into the digital sphere. That is not this essay.) I believe this can be true. I also know that digital personalization through algorithms feeds you more of what you search for and more of what you already consume. If you are not already looking for difference- where will you encounter it? If you do not encounter difference regularly what is your threshold for difference or divergence from what you know and believe?
Like many, over the past year I have reduced my social media interaction. I’ve moved from active participant, reliable sharer and sometimes ranter to an occasional contributor and/or lurker. My life has not gotten less interesting, actually the inverse. I’ve always been a person who feels she tries to be fully present. Fully present for me and my identity constellation means a double consciousness. Participating in social media for me without clear intention felt like the rampant evolution of multiple consciousnesses informed by voices that were not of my choosing, bringing forth values that are not mine for an audience curated by happenstance of existence.
Choosing to be in the moment to experience my life does not mean I’m not taking pictures – I’m still a photographer. I am who I am in this way. I am taking more images and I’m sharing less. My reduction in interaction led to deleting one app- Facebook. Why just one?
For me it was the biggest time suck (here the infinite scroll is NOT your friend). My participation in other social media apps based in personal sharing has been sporadic at best. I’m terrible at personal promotion. I don’t have children in my home where I’m sharing about their lives with or without their permission, external validation is a slippery slope for my self-esteem and mental health. As a person of my particular intersection of identities my relationship to society- or more accurately- society’s relationship to me is based on my alignment with stereotypes of the broadest categories applied, usually based on visible observations about my humanity. My perceived gender based on observable sex. My perceived cultural orientations or understandings or expected performance based on observation of melanin content. Long, complex identity story short the world was not built to elaborate me and cheer me on.
I’ve been working in educational technology, and digital media arts for over 25 years. In my growth alongside the development of these industries I participated in all early forms of the Internet or the inter-webs whichever your preference. In recent years I have found myself wanting to exist and interact in the digital realm less in favor of more in person interaction and experiences.
This is not revelatory for many I’m sure. I am writing this at the end of 2021, in the long tail of the COVID-19 pandemic. This global health crisis sent humans into isolation in an effort to slow the spread of an unknown disease that was killing people indiscriminately. Countries, states, and individuals all reacted differently. In the United States of America many of us, when retreating to our homes, had the privilege of leaning on digital infrastructure to maintain work and personal connections. The reliance on the digital infrastructure revealed the stark infrastructure and socioeconomic inequities in our country. This is not as essay about that. That context is the societal backdrop for this essay.
(The April 2022 amendment)
2018-2020 was the cancer & recovery season.
After my partner survived a life changing cancer diagnosis, an intensive chemotherapy trial and major organ removal/reconstruction surgery our relationship to each other changed. Our relationship to ourselves, each other and the world changed. Time became more valuable than money. If this is part of your life’s experiences you probably feel seen in this writing.
The complexity of that experience could never be conveyed through microblogging.
The act of intentional documentation and curation can shape our interactions with this intention. During our cancer season we were intentionally private about the daily details and limited sharing to a private family network. I did not trust that the world wouldn’t hold our humanity against us in the sharing of our truths and lived reality. The absence of this intention for me has allowed for a way of being that has been deeper, richer, and more satiating than the desired outcome of intentional documentation and publication to date. It has been an awe inspiring evolution. As a photographer and documentarian by nurture and nature it has been both freeing and confounding.
I went back to work full time in early March 2020, six weeks after my partner’s surgery. Less than two weeks later schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’ve been home together the majority of every day since March 13, 2020. In October 2020, before a vaccine was available I returned to in-person instruction- could not afford to make another choice. A job transition was already in the planning pre-pandemic. Like many, the pandemic was an accelerant and became another layer in making choices about life, living and what the true cost/value of money and time.
When all we could see was COVID-19, the texture of our society revealed itself in seemingly boundless expressions of compassion, hatred, panic, creativity, as we entered the period we now refer to as ‘COVID time’- the fog of time passing through a collective trauma and for some of us, multiple simultaneous pandemics.
Two more years pass. I wrote the first part of this essay in December 2021- and paused on publication. Re-read an amended today, in April 2022.
I miss you and our casual interactions on social media. I’ll be thrilled to see you when we can be together.
Stopped by to intentionally publicize and share- my choice of less (social media) has led to more of everything else. Join me?