Through the social media pinhole camera
May 29th, 2008 |
A pinhole camera, also known as a camera obscura, has many uses. It may be used to indirectly view the sun to avoid harming the naked eye, or to help bring a distant object into focus. It is also an apt metaphor for the view we have through social media, not only of the world at large, but of the world of social media itself. By gazing through a pinhole of our own design, we look only at the output of a certain group of trusted friends, at a certain list of preferred blogs, at a certain set of daily news feeds. It is a narrow world of comfort, predictability and familiarity.
Both our self-constrained eyes and the pinhole camera limit our panorama. As Dirk J. Van Den Berg wrote in the online journal Image [&] Narrative,
“This involves the construction of imaginary fixations whose distorting effects are due to their cancer-like growth in the image domain and their relentless dissemination in visual culture. Such ideological fixations are typically images of ‘what goes without saying’ (Ri coeur 1986, cf Van den Berg 1993) — images that empower and disempower, images that conceal and reveal, images that identify and stereotype, images that blind people and that make people see, images that console and images that damn.”
As we peer through the tiny pinhole formed by our perceptions, our limitations, and our notions of “what goes without saying,” how much of the world’s potential to inform and amuse are we overlooking? Does the very nature of social media, its structure, its reliance on friends, and links and connections, doom us forever to see only a 65-degree view of the world?
| Sphere This |
Joel, interesting thought on the filtering process within social media. It makes me think that while some people’s 65-degree view may be enough to get a comprehensive perspective, others may be getting short changed due to the network/community they’re part of. It seems to me that it’s about the quality (or relevancy) of those connections. Ya gotta know where to point that pinhole camera!
Comment by Tony Obregon — May 29, 2008 @ 1:26 am
Thought provoking post, Joel.
I guess depending on one’s personal perspective, the downside to the nature of social media is that you miss the flavor of those you aren’t connected with, but the upside is we ‘get’ to control the view have based on our connection choices.
Suddenly makes me want to follow many more people and expand my view =)
Comment by Robyn Flach — May 29, 2008 @ 8:29 am
Hey Joel:
What I like about social media is that my 65 degree view [1] is immediately augmented by a simple click to another person’s 65 degree view, where I can check out blogs, delicious links, and tweets of acquaintances that give me a new perspective.
And I think social media really does map the physical human interaction…the same filters apply to whether you hang out with someone in the cafeteria as to whether you add them to your facebook list. And now that I think of it, social media is alot more democratic because you’re selecting people for ideas and interactions…not economic social status/appearance.
[1] love your elegant phrase~ what a delight.
LKR
Comment by LKR — May 29, 2008 @ 9:28 am