Module 4 delves into the complex world of selfies, exploring their definition, history, and cultural impact. It examines the selfie both as an object and a product within the context of power theories and production, including aspects of vanity publishing. This module invites students to critically engage with the concept of the selfie as a form of personal and social narrative, dissecting its role in identity formation and representation.
Learning Outcomes:
- Explore and understand the selfie as a narrative tool for personal and collective representation.
- Critically examine the role of selfies in the context of power dynamics and societal norms.
- Analyze the implications of selfies in terms of objectification, production, and their intersection with issues of gender, race, and subversive critiques.
Required Readings Analysis:
Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., & Dabbish, L. (2018). "Selfies as Social Movements."
This paper investigates how selfies have transcended personal use to become tools in social movements. It explores their influence on participation in social causes and their impact on stereotypes, highlighting the transformative power of selfies in shaping social discourse.Tiidenberg, K. (2017). "Visibly ageing femininities on Instagram."
Tiidenberg's study focuses on how women over 40 and 50 represent themselves on Instagram. It discusses how these visual discourses challenge and reshape societal perceptions of aging femininity, offering a critical perspective on self-representation in digital spaces.Hunter, T. (2022). "AI selfies and Lensa."
This article provides insights into the surge of AI-generated selfies, particularly focusing on the Lensa app. It delves into the technological aspects of AI in creating personalized portraits, highlighting both the fascination and the ethical considerations surrounding AI in personal representation.Dezuanni, M., Reddan, B., Rutherford, L., & Schoonens, A. (2022). "Selfies and shelfies on #bookstagram and #booktok."
This research explores the intersection of selfies and reading culture in social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. It examines how selfies, or 'shelfies', mediate the reading experiences of Australian teens, revealing the nuances of digital self-representation in literary contexts.O’Hagan, L. A., & Spilioti, T. (2021). "The Edwardian Selfies."
O’Hagan and Spilioti take a transhistorical approach to understanding selfies by exploring the Edwardian era's pictorial bookplates. This study offers a unique perspective on the early forms of self-representation and their relation to contemporary selfie culture, bridging historical and modern practices of personal depiction.
Module Activities & Assignments:
Your task is to critique your own AI-created selfie/s.
Objective:
To critically analyse and articulate the complexities of self-representation in new media, focusing on the interplay of technology, culture, and identity, and to effectively communicate these insights in an academic context
You will critically evaluate selfies in the context of societal norms, power structures, and personal narratives, using the readings as a theoretical foundation for their analysis and creative expression.
Our readings this week focused on the rising significance of online identities, and how content creators develop their own online personas. Recently, I have become very familiar with the importance of curating a digital identity, especially when it comes to encouraging a community response.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago, my apartment building was set on fire and I lost my home and all of my belongings. In the weekend that followed the incident, three of my close friends helped create a Gofundme page to help recover some of the immediate expenses needed to help set me on my feet again. While I was reeling from this tragedy and trying to figure out what the next steps for me might be, I also had to somehow figure out which photos to send my friends to make me seem like a ‘sweet and generous’ person— someone who is worthy of receiving donations not only from those who know me, but from complete strangers as well. Having to scroll through my phone, selecting photos where I am smiling or spending time with my loved ones, while I quite literally had just lost everything I managed to accumulate in my lifetime, was a pretty on-the-nose example of having to “form [an identity] in order to mobilize individuals to take collective action” (Liu, Ford, Parnin, Dabbish, 2018, 5). I witnessed firsthand how selfies do become indications of what an individual stands for, and reading these articles after having gone through this process had me thinking more critically about the photos I chose to send to my friends. What about them made me feel this would make a good impression to other individuals? How did I present myself, my style, my values, in a single photo? How did the photos exemplify the kind words my friends wrote about me? How did the photos function as “truth claims by lending… authenticity” (Tiidenberg, 2017, 9)?
Sources
Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., & Dabbish, L. (2018). "Selfies as Social Movements."
Tiidenberg, K. (2017). "Visibly ageing femininities on Instagram."
Hunter, T. (2022). "AI selfies and Lensa."
Dezuanni, M., Reddan, B., Rutherford, L., & Schoonens, A. (2022). "Selfies and shelfies on #bookstagram and #booktok."
O’Hagan, L. A., & Spilioti, T. (2021). "The Edwardian Selfies."
The first reading for Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., & Dabbish, L. (2018). "Selfies as Social Movements” discusses how hashtagged photo postings can create a community that can change the stereotype points taken from others. Despite the risk of posting selfies publicly and concerns about their spread, it seems that grouping these selfies together was able to make noticeable changes, according to the research on the #ILookLikeAnEngineer selfie in the reading. This hashtag empowered people and gave them a feeling of belonging to the engineering community. I can see in this reading how the virtual world is similar to our real world, where people gather together to protest and take to the streets to amplify their voices, making them louder so that others can hear. The selfie in this reading spoke louder than a real protest action.
ReplyDeleteIn the second reading Tiidenberg, K. (2017). "Visibly ageing femininities on Instagram”, the article explores the idea of women's resistance and what they aim to convey through hashtags and selfies. It is similar to the first reading in terms of breaking stereotype perceptions. However, it goes further by rejecting the normalization of women in middle age and their public presentation. It shows passion beyond the role of caregiver through fashion looks and fitness for a better appearance, while also expressing satisfaction with their age. I can see this reading indicating that individuals can convey a strong message through images and hashtags, especially in challenging the normalization of classifying certain people based on age or gender.
In the third reading, Hunter, T. (2022). "AI selfies and Lensa."I noticed that even though Lensa didn't satisfy users with the result they wanted for their AI portrait, many people still installed the app to discover how AI could generate their image or how they would appear in AI's eyes. I also see that this AI will never satisfy humans since beauty is a normative concept—what one person finds beautiful, another might dislike.
In the fourth reading Dezuanni, M., Reddan, B., Rutherford, L., & Schoonens, A. (2022). "Selfies and shelfies on #bookstagram and #booktok." both Jenny and Hana are building platforms for communication, encouraging open conversation on topics of their interest. The intent is somehow similar: to encourage book readers to join, create a sense of belonging, and provide information about books. However, each of them has implicit their own style in mediating this platform. While Jenny has left herself away from the photo that she shares, she included a colorful, luxurious background for the book using candles and flowers, which probably reflects her personality and how she perceives books. Hana has used a casual way of communication, which also reflects her own characteristics. The selfies that she shares of her room, even her physical style, and her comment when she counts herself as a slow reader. Thus, both influencers have a kind of the same objective in building these platforms; however, their selfies would probably reflect their style, their mindset, and the participants who are following them.
The last reading O’Hagan, L. A., & Spilioti, T. (2021). "The Edwardian Selfies." was about Edwardian selfies and bookplates. It offered a fascinating glimpse into the transhistorical nature of selfies and how they differed in style, such as portrait, residential, library interior, and allegorical. These selfies are not only capable of reflecting the content of the book or the character inside, but they can also convey the culture of the period in which these photos were used. Through these images, we can study what life looked like and the perceptions of that time. It also sheds light on how men and women differed in terms of positioning themselves and the political arguments of the era. This is another example of how selfies can convey information beyond just a simple image.
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ReplyDeleteThe reading in Module 4 talks about selfies, including their definition, cultural and historical impacts. Liu et al. (2018) talk about how selfies work as a tool of social movement, the example of using #ILookLikeAnEngineer to challenge engineering stereotypes shows the transformative power of selfies. This also reminds me of the #IfTheyGunMeDown movement, in which participants used different selfies and photos as tools: one looked more positive, while the other was more inclined to be perceived as a deviant. If they gun me down, which picture would the media use to represent me? Just like #ILookLikeAnEngineer, the selfies in #IfTheyGunMeDown became a tool to promote social movements. The selfies, as a self-representation, allow participants to break down stereotypes or racism in a more visceral way, which can promote the participant's sense of identity and connection with the marginalized community. Media can use a single photo to represent a person's whole life, mislead the public and guide the public into the trap of stereotypes. However, when selfies work as a movement, individuals can use selfies to speak for themselves, making their voices heard by the public.
ReplyDeleteIn the reading "AI selfies — and their critics — are taking the internet by storm
", Hunter (2022) mentions the possible biases when users use Lensa to create their AI portraits, such as Lensa's relevant low ability to create images of black women. " Data are never neutral; they are always the biased output of unequal social, historical, and economic conditions: this is the matrix of domination once again" (D'Ignazio & Klein, 2023, p.39). The poor ability of AI to analyze and regenerate dark-skinned people's images results from the less representation of dark-skinned people in AI training (Hunter, 2022). In my perspective, this neglect can be seen as a power, which the dominant group uses in data to keep their dominant situation alive and pretend they are neutral. They hide their biases and power under the "neutral data" to oppress minorities more imperceptibly.
References
D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2023). Data feminism. Cambridge, MA: The Mit Press.
Hunter, T. (2022). AI selfies — and their critics — are taking the internet by storm. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/08/lensa-ai-portraits/
Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., & Dabbish, L. (2017). Selfies as social movements. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 1(CSCW), 1–21. doi:10.1145/3134707
Post from: Selena Jammaz
ReplyDelete__________________________________________
The “Selfies as Social Movements” reading discusses how selfies can encourage us to reflect on how we view ourselves, and then extend this understanding to join a larger narrative of people with similar profiles and mindsets (Liu et al., 2018). While this is positively exemplified with the #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement, it’s also worth exploring the adverse effects it may have on people’s identities in context of the Palestienian genocide. I’ve heard many people speak about how their lack of posting activity is leading them to be inaccurately labeled as non-Palestinian supporters. However, they may not be posting because the content is too explicit for them to engage with, or they simply feel too upset to join the conversation. While the degree of sensitivity associated with the genocide is extremely large relative to other matters, it still goes to show that in the online arena, even your silence can be interpreted in a manner that doesn’t reflect your stance. Therefore, are we obliged to believe that our online activities define our values and beliefs, or can we maintain a separation between our offline and online identities?
For me, our digital and human identities are slowly yet surely becoming one and the same, and this is largely fueled by individuals who’re using social media to challenge societal perceptions. For example, the 40 and 50-year-old women who’re proactively shaping the rhetoric around ageism to resist the devaluation of being old (Tiidenberg, 2017) are empowering other women’s perceptions of themselves in real life.
This need of using online authenticity to drive real life actions is paramount to achieve commercial interests, especially when it comes to advertising. For example, at work, we’re crafting a campaign for a brand whose objective is to restore broken brand trust with the consumers. Therefore, a large element of the campaign is to use influencers who don’t exude “influencer vibes”, but that are instead relatable. In other words, we’re selecting individuals that our target audience can see themselves in, because people listen to people, not brands.
A recent headlining event that illustrates the transparency (or lack thereof) of the offline and online self is the news about Kate Middleton. During the months she had been absent from the public eye, a seemingly photoshopped image of her and her children sparked controversy as to whether the image was real or not, leading to a widespread social conversation of “Where is Kate?”
Collectively, these examples bring us back to the initial topic: is the digital space doing more to foster people’s authentic selves, or is it serving as a tool to widen the gap between who we are and who we appear to be?
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Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., & Dabbish, L. (2017). Selfies as social movements: Influences on participation and perceived impact on stereotypes. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 1(CSCW), 1-21.
Tiidenberg, K. (2018). Visibly ageing femininities: women’s visual discourses of being over-40 and over-50 on Instagram. Feminist Media Studies, 18(1), 61-76.
O’Hagan and Spilioti’s (2021) article, The Edwardian Selfies, resonated particularly with me. I found that the connections the study made between historical and modern self-representations enlightening and indicative of human social structure. As an anthropologist and museum professional by training, I am particularly interested human nature and the ways in which our modern activities are reflected in past behaviour. Our tools and technologies may change, but there are some fundamental actions that persist through these changes.
ReplyDeleteThe article Selfies and shelfies on #bookstagram and #booktok by Dezuanni, et al. (2022) brought forward a different form of social media representation than one normally considers when thinking about modern selfies. Their article identified self-representations in the form of organized or arranged bookshelves. In O’Hagan and Spilioti, they would refer to this as a Still life selfie - “An image that shows an object implying the author in an arranged composition from the perspective of the viewer” - using Zhao and Zappavigna’s (2018, 2020) typology of selfies. This article provides an alternative form of self-representation that is being shown on social media, that isn’t necessarily indicative of common perceptions around selfies. However, the same level of thought and care goes into the creation of these ‘shelfies’ as classic influencers use with their selfies.
The Liu, et al. (2018), Tiidenberg (2017), and Hunter (2022) readings all focused more on the ethical considerations of self-representation. Liu, et al. focused upon the use of selfies in social movements and protests. They examined how the use of selfies in these movements was impacted by societal pressures and an individual's perception on how their participation in the selfie movement might be recognized by their extended social circles. Tiidenberg examined how women over 40 represent themselves on instagram and how they still face the societal perceptions younger women face, but how they are trying to change the dynamic of how they are perceived. Hunter addresses the built-in algorithmic biases that are reflected in the images generated by the Lensa app. All three of these articles provide interesting ethical perspectives that should be considered when viewing images of self-representation. They highlight the importance of context and individual intent behind the sharing of self-representations, but also the societal forces that impact these individual decisions.
Hi Meredith,
DeleteReading about your fascination with modern activities reflecting past behaviour gets me equally excited :) And I appreciate your perspective as a trained anthropologist. I wonder what you think about a modern day scenario, which is our use of social media as a tool to position ourselves in the minds of potential employers. Not just on LinkedIn, but on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook too. Should employers consider people's online personas as part of part of their evaluation process? If it's not professional, are employers still able to withhold their bias towards someone based on their online presence? Should we, as potential employees, live our "online lives" keeping in mind that our digital identity will somehow impact our probability of landing a job in the future?