We experience life using new media.
With this artefact, I attempt to visually represent the all consuming nature of what will be referred to as “new media”. New media in this instance relates to current forms of social media, and the fact that as I write this I am able to share content and communicate with any of my friends on nearly a dozen different platforms. This access should be considered as a privileged position from a middle class person in a developed nation, not necessarily pertaining to all.
In the past decade with the democratisation of the smart phone, our ability to communicate with others has increased ten fold. Lenhart cites the Pew Research Centre, which found that 24% of teenagers say they are online “almost constantly”. Lenhart also discusses the diversification of social media use, noting that the vast majority uses more than one social networking platform, with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter being the dominant platforms. (2015)
This drawing illustrates this pervasive experience of social media technology, particularly for youth, and from this we can question what the future of social media holds. The widespread nature of technology and the diversification of media could be, in part a result of what Bruce Sterling refers to as the constant reinvention and re emergence of different media technologies. He argues that “almost every manifestation of what we call “new media” would be much better described as “temporary media.” (p. 79, 1997) As new platforms are constantly being invented, we are using more and more applications and websites. As we can see in this drawing, interacting with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and iMessage have become rituals of everyday life. As platform use increases and older platforms are switched out for more innovative ones, it could be seen that our consciousness is being more and more defined by our social media use.
How will this impact the future? We should consider how our use of social media is affecting how we document and share our experiences. This may not only pertain to personal memories but to world events. Brant explores the idea that social media use is also about the construction of a “collective memory”; “we are producing such a wealth of digital artefacts our of everyday experiences that the traditional institutions of cultural heritage… will no longer be the central repositories of our cultural production and memories.” (p. 19, 2014) In this drawing, we consider how conversations and social media activity can be archived for reflection and observation.
Keightley and Schlesinger note there there are “implications of an unprecedented accumulation of media and cultural resources, and their potential for ways of making sense of our own and others’ experience over time.” (p. 746, 2014) If we are able to access memories from five years ago in moments, from a number of different platforms, it will be fascinating to see how our sense of digital memory continues to develop. The proliferation of social media is our lives has an impact, and this could involve not only how we look back on events and relationships but how we process and experience them.
References
Lenhart, A 2015, ‘Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview’, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2017].
Sterling, B 1997, ‘The digital revolution in retrospect’.Communications of the ACM, vol. 40, no. 2, p.79-ff. Available at: ACM Digital Library. [Accessed 23rd March 2017]
Burkey, B 2014, ‘The future of remembering: How multimodal platforms and social media are repurposing our digitally shared pasts in cultural heritage and collective memory practices.’ PhD. University of Oregon. Available at: Proquest. [Accessed 22nd March 2017]
Keightley, E. and Schlesinger, P 2014, ‘Digital media – social memory: remembering in digitally networked times’, Media, Culture & Society, vol. 36, no. 6, pp.745-747. Available at: SAGE Journals. [Accessed: 23rd March 2017]