Module 6: Content Creation with Pinterest
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Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 - Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015
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Sunday, 8 February 2015
Module 6: Pinterest
Saturday, 7 February 2015
A journal-keeper at last?
I had my first sip of Facebook kool-aid in 2007, and have been an avid and active user ever since. I work at home, and FB is my office water cooler. It's the place where I catch up on people's lives and activities, and where we swap banter over current events and pop culture. To my surprise, it also became a place where acquaintances turned into friends (as in real-life, face-to-face friends), where I reconnected with more distant friends and relatives, and where I met new people.
More recently, I have also used Facebook extensively to help promote my choir association, Kokopelli, via its Facebook page (currently with 2,449 "likes").
Before this week's readings, however, I had never really thought of Facebook as a narrative tool. But, buried amongst the memes and cat videos, people do use it to share stories. For example, my friends had the chance to follow me and my family over the past couple of weeks during our vacation in Orlando. In cases like this, I do try to craft my narrative for an audience—sticking to photos and updates that (hopefully) people will find entertaining, or at least not tiresome.
In the process of my 7+ years on social media, Facebook has also become my personal journal—even though I've never thought of it that way. Over my lifespan, I've tried and failed several times to keep a regular journal. Now, with some serious technological mediation, I may have succeeded. I can dig my way back through my timeline and get a pretty good sense of who I was and what I was doing in 2008, or 2010.
Facebook even regularly gives me opportunities to enjoy slick personalized video retrospectives—for example, last year's clever "Look Back" videos (created via some mystical Facebook algorithm). And, of course, Facebook adds the ever-present invitation to share them. Got a minute? Here's mine.
For this assignment, I also took a few minutes to examine my current News Feed in search of other people's narratives.
A choir acquaintance has been struggling with school, finances, a bad cold, and some depression. Going through the last two weeks of her feed, I can follow her story—her dark moments, her efforts to raise her spirits. Facebook gives her a place to vent, to process her feelings, and to seek (and find) solidarity and support.
A young parent took his little guy to emergency with mysterious leg pains. In the middle of the night, he shared his story (and his worries) on Facebook, and the next day he posted a detailed update of the happy ending. Again, he's just an acquaintance, but I felt connected (and deeply sympathetic) to his narrative.
I hear all the usual complaints about Facebook—it's a forum for narcissism blended with utter inanity, it's a ploy to harvest our data and enslave our brains—but it works for me.
References
A Look Back. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/lookback
Kokopelli Choirs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/kokopellichoirs
More recently, I have also used Facebook extensively to help promote my choir association, Kokopelli, via its Facebook page (currently with 2,449 "likes").
Before this week's readings, however, I had never really thought of Facebook as a narrative tool. But, buried amongst the memes and cat videos, people do use it to share stories. For example, my friends had the chance to follow me and my family over the past couple of weeks during our vacation in Orlando. In cases like this, I do try to craft my narrative for an audience—sticking to photos and updates that (hopefully) people will find entertaining, or at least not tiresome.
In the process of my 7+ years on social media, Facebook has also become my personal journal—even though I've never thought of it that way. Over my lifespan, I've tried and failed several times to keep a regular journal. Now, with some serious technological mediation, I may have succeeded. I can dig my way back through my timeline and get a pretty good sense of who I was and what I was doing in 2008, or 2010.
Facebook even regularly gives me opportunities to enjoy slick personalized video retrospectives—for example, last year's clever "Look Back" videos (created via some mystical Facebook algorithm). And, of course, Facebook adds the ever-present invitation to share them. Got a minute? Here's mine.
For this assignment, I also took a few minutes to examine my current News Feed in search of other people's narratives.
A choir acquaintance has been struggling with school, finances, a bad cold, and some depression. Going through the last two weeks of her feed, I can follow her story—her dark moments, her efforts to raise her spirits. Facebook gives her a place to vent, to process her feelings, and to seek (and find) solidarity and support.
A young parent took his little guy to emergency with mysterious leg pains. In the middle of the night, he shared his story (and his worries) on Facebook, and the next day he posted a detailed update of the happy ending. Again, he's just an acquaintance, but I felt connected (and deeply sympathetic) to his narrative.
I hear all the usual complaints about Facebook—it's a forum for narcissism blended with utter inanity, it's a ploy to harvest our data and enslave our brains—but it works for me.
References
A Look Back. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/lookback
Kokopelli Choirs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/kokopellichoirs
Module 5 - Externalizing thought is good for us
When I saw the task Jessica set for us this week, I decided to focus more on the Facebook posts of a few of those I follow on Twitter. I do not have a Facebook wall and have only a passing knowledge of its GUI and types of content that can be found on Facebook, yet it’s clear that there is a synergetic product yielded from its “gossipy text” (Mickes, Darby, Hwe, Bajic, Warker, Harris, & Christenfeld, 2013, p. 487). Indeed, as many others here have indicated, I was surprised to see that narrative abounded. We need to be heard to feel significant, but we also need to listen and respond to feel significant.
The Cyborogology article spoke volumes to me as a member of Gen X, the last generation to know what it’s like to live without SM. I was intrigued by the argument “that identity-change is something that should be hidden, reinforcing the stigma that generates the phrase to begin with” (Jurgensen, 2012, para. 3). Instead, “we might also think of how it could have also been a foundation of encouragement, assistance, and validation that many of us might have benefited from” (para. 4). This was echoed in one of the 420 Characters narratives:
THE PRISONER OF NOISE stood before the bathroom sink, fingers in his ears, head down, mouth wide open, willing the sounds in his head to spill into the basin - the yelps and booms, screeches, screams and howls, crashes and groans, explosions and roars and babel and bangs. What if they formed a hairball of din, clogged the sink, scared the children when they came in at night to pee? He closed his mouth, went back to bed.
SM journaling facilitates a voice for those who wish to chronicle their evolution. I agree with Jurgensen that we’ve gone from a society that supresses feeling to sharing freely, and it does seem that those wishing to continue with the suppression are finding their power base eroding quickly, if not voided altogether.
One example that of personal evolution being chronicled via online journaling that caught my eye recently is the story of Chevi Rabbit, a U of A graduate who was attacked in 2012 on his way home from campus. As an openly gay man, Chevi was targeted for his appearance and attire. Of course, one would understand if Chevi decided to crawl into a hole and attempt to become invisible. However, the resulting outcry on SM served as a vehicle for Chevi to find his purpose and his voice – he reversed his initial response to hide and brought his career-based daydreams into fruition.
The Cyborogology article spoke volumes to me as a member of Gen X, the last generation to know what it’s like to live without SM. I was intrigued by the argument “that identity-change is something that should be hidden, reinforcing the stigma that generates the phrase to begin with” (Jurgensen, 2012, para. 3). Instead, “we might also think of how it could have also been a foundation of encouragement, assistance, and validation that many of us might have benefited from” (para. 4). This was echoed in one of the 420 Characters narratives:
THE PRISONER OF NOISE stood before the bathroom sink, fingers in his ears, head down, mouth wide open, willing the sounds in his head to spill into the basin - the yelps and booms, screeches, screams and howls, crashes and groans, explosions and roars and babel and bangs. What if they formed a hairball of din, clogged the sink, scared the children when they came in at night to pee? He closed his mouth, went back to bed.
SM journaling facilitates a voice for those who wish to chronicle their evolution. I agree with Jurgensen that we’ve gone from a society that supresses feeling to sharing freely, and it does seem that those wishing to continue with the suppression are finding their power base eroding quickly, if not voided altogether.
One example that of personal evolution being chronicled via online journaling that caught my eye recently is the story of Chevi Rabbit, a U of A graduate who was attacked in 2012 on his way home from campus. As an openly gay man, Chevi was targeted for his appearance and attire. Of course, one would understand if Chevi decided to crawl into a hole and attempt to become invisible. However, the resulting outcry on SM served as a vehicle for Chevi to find his purpose and his voice – he reversed his initial response to hide and brought his career-based daydreams into fruition.
Chevi’s Facebook profile promotes his business as a makeup artist; it also chronicles his evolution from victim to a humanitarian symbol for the Metis culture as well as his intent to become active in Alberta politics.
So yes, Chevi is using SM to chronicle his evolution via FB (1,739 likes) and Twitter (702 followers). But SM response to his assault was the impetus for this, implying an inherent and inextricable link between oneself and the society within which one lives. It took SM to not only motivate Chevi to embark on his evolution, but SM now is the vehicle by which Chevi continues to develop. In that, the Chevi Rabbit story “promote[s] the idea that those embarrassing tweets, or anyone’s embarrassing digital dirt, can be used to validate identity change and growth” (Jurgensen, 2012, para. 7) as echoed in another of the 420 Characters narratives:
HE WAITED all his life for a splashy catharsis, irrefutable evidence that a profound change had transformed him. It took him many years to realize that he had been altered each day by the sun's rising and the moon's movement, by the unfurling of his daughter's tiny hand to grasp his thumb, by the cat on his chest, by the glass of water his wife brought him before bedtime, by the questions his son asked.
So yes, Chevi is using SM to chronicle his evolution via FB (1,739 likes) and Twitter (702 followers). But SM response to his assault was the impetus for this, implying an inherent and inextricable link between oneself and the society within which one lives. It took SM to not only motivate Chevi to embark on his evolution, but SM now is the vehicle by which Chevi continues to develop. In that, the Chevi Rabbit story “promote[s] the idea that those embarrassing tweets, or anyone’s embarrassing digital dirt, can be used to validate identity change and growth” (Jurgensen, 2012, para. 7) as echoed in another of the 420 Characters narratives:
Anyone remember the 1997 Jodie Foster movie Contact? One of the more memorable scenes for me occurred when Jodie’s character, Ellie Arroway, gets to finally interact with an alien life form, who notes:
You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.
As cliché as this may be, the truth is that we are inextricably linked to each other, and it seems that our growth depends on our connectedness. Facebook appears to be a seminal vehicle for this.
REFERENCES
Jurgensen, N. (2012, November 26). Glad I didn’t have Facebook in high school [blog post]. Retrieved from http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/11/26/glad-i-didnt-have-facebook-in-high-school/
Mickes, L., Darby, R., Hwe, V., Bajic, D., Warker, J., Harris, C., & Christenfeld, N. (2013). Major memory for microblogs. Memory & Cognition, 41(4), 481-489. doi:10.3758/s13421-012-0281-6
REFERENCES
Jurgensen, N. (2012, November 26). Glad I didn’t have Facebook in high school [blog post]. Retrieved from http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/11/26/glad-i-didnt-have-facebook-in-high-school/
Mickes, L., Darby, R., Hwe, V., Bajic, D., Warker, J., Harris, C., & Christenfeld, N. (2013). Major memory for microblogs. Memory & Cognition, 41(4), 481-489. doi:10.3758/s13421-012-0281-6
Quotes from Contact. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/quotes?item=qt0379373
Friday, 6 February 2015
An end to my Facebook journey (maybe)
For a while now, I have been considering deleting my Facebook account as I am no longer very active. In fact, my last post was from June 2014. This was actually a bit of a surprise to me and think I felt a bit more active as several friends have tagged me in posts and photos since that time.
1. Travel Update
I find that the for the most part, the information I receive in my ‘news feed’ is either something I can learn about another way or it’s just not important to me. A quick look at my news feed today has confirmed that this is my typical experience.
1. Travel Update
2. Movie Trailer
3. Travel Selfie
4. Weather Update
5. Positive Quote/Picture
6. Travel Advice
7. Funny Picture
8. Life Rant
8. Life Rant
9. Game Suggestion
10. Advertisement
The majority of my friends appear to write without an audience in mind. It is more about sharing. This sharing comes in the form of helpful advice, informative messaging and interesting videos, however, it does not appear that the majority of my friends use their Facebook space to create a narrative.
In the minority, are a couple of friends who employ their Facebook space to build engagement related to their personal business. I have a fitness coach friend who uses this medium to motivate others, share fitness tips and also ask for advice. I don’t really see any negative affects from the character restraints. Rather, her posts usually generate a fair amount of activity as they resonate with the audience she is targeting.
I know someone else who uses his space to post a motivational quote or narrative on a daily basis. With the regularity in the schedule and the consistency in the type of message, I would suggest there is a level of narrative at work within the continuity flowing from consistent messaging rather than a story line or plot. Again, I do not think the character restraint affects the messaging as it is generally well within the quota and these efforts are mostly met with many ‘likes’ and a few comments.
With the ability to share messages with multiple media at the same time I feel like many people are limited to the lowest common denominator and if twitter is in your mix, you are limited by the 140 character count.
With all of this in mind, and the general lack of interest I have for most things Facebook, I still have not committed to actually deleting my page. Like any form of social media I think I feel I certain sense of connection to my 'network' even if the connection is not as meaningful as many other forms of interaction that occur throughout my day. And deleting my account, almost feels like too much of an end to the brief interaction I have enjoyed over the past 7 years, Strange how quickly a form of new media can become a part of your daily activity.
A Facebook Story
A book full of stories. From status updates to news feeds, Facebook
unfolds stories about the real-world, in real time. The authors all have faces
and names, but who had the idea first to make up a story, matters less. It is
just like how my grandma use to tell: the story is more interesting than
the author. This makes me believe that Facebook is a new form of folklore, a
digital lore: “Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history,
proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs
included in the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group.” (Mayor, 2000).
Facebook is a fantastic journey. Challenging and immersive. I
am enjoying being part of it, participating in, and sometimes, creating it. I am
interacting with some of its authors, who happens to be in my friends’ list.
Sometimes we are using one picture or one word to tell an entire story. I enjoy
looking up for the story of the day. I am looking for it in the news, in my
friends feeds, and in their comments. When I find it, I like to put a little contribution
to it: a comment, a thumb up, a share. Facebook is changing its face every day.
I don’t remember the foreword or the first chapter, and I
cannot foresee how the book will end. I am just enjoying the online storyline.
Reference:
Mayor, A. (2000). Bibliography of Classical Folklore
Scholarship: Myths, Legends, and Popular Beliefs of Ancient Greece and Rome. Folklore, 111(1),
123-138. doi:10.1080/001558700360924
Facebook narratives
As the assignment directed, I reviewed my Facebook feed and was surprised to find that there are indeed narratives being carried out by several people I follow. I knew there was one that has been going on since New Years Eve that I had in mind when I went in to review my feed. A friend of mine and her husband moved to Austria in the fall to teach skiing and work as ski patrol. Unfortunately, Dave had a very serious accident that he was lucky to survive while skiing en piste. His wife has been keeping us updated with posts, almost daily and it has been wonderful. There was also a crowd source funding campaign established for them and this too have been playing out along with fundraisers etc. Dave's wife is a journalist and a great writer so her updates have been amazing to read, full of emotion and drama. They have ranged from an initial report of the event, and then updates ranging from concern whether Dave would survive the accident, to would he lose his leg and so on, right up to his being released from hospital yesterday. It has been riveting to read and the responses to these posts from friends all over the word range from 150-900. The support for this couple has been tremendous and has also created a very cohesive community that has helped spread the word for the fundraising campaign and keep these two and their families going. There seems to be no constraint with the word limit of these posts however as the past post by Dave's wife contained 1,195 words. It is also interesting that they have been using this story to create some awareness around safety and the importance of wearing a helmet.
While I expected this particular friend to have a narrative, I was surprised to find others did as well. I follow several friends who are living on boats, sailing around the world and their feeds too tend to be directed at their friends, keeping them updated on the progress they make, always seeking feedback and thoughts. While its a great way to stay in touch it helps them tell their story and reach out to the many friends they have.
Meanwhile, another friend lost both of her elderly parents in the past couple of years and she and her siblings have been posting a great deal about their family's life, partly in remembrance of their parents and partly to cope with their loss. The publics role in this story seems to help them recreate memories and in some way keep their spirit alive and well. It too is very effective.
Most of the posts by my friends are the mundane, day-to-day postings of what's going on in their lives but I am surprised when I review to find narratives taking place with meaning.
While I expected this particular friend to have a narrative, I was surprised to find others did as well. I follow several friends who are living on boats, sailing around the world and their feeds too tend to be directed at their friends, keeping them updated on the progress they make, always seeking feedback and thoughts. While its a great way to stay in touch it helps them tell their story and reach out to the many friends they have.
Meanwhile, another friend lost both of her elderly parents in the past couple of years and she and her siblings have been posting a great deal about their family's life, partly in remembrance of their parents and partly to cope with their loss. The publics role in this story seems to help them recreate memories and in some way keep their spirit alive and well. It too is very effective.
Most of the posts by my friends are the mundane, day-to-day postings of what's going on in their lives but I am surprised when I review to find narratives taking place with meaning.
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Module 5: Facebook
Module 5: Facebook and Narratives of Memory
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Monday, Feb. 2, 2015 - Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015
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