Photo Sharing: How Technology Has Changed the Way We Interact with Images
I love old photo albums. In an armoire in my mom’s room sits close to twenty albums my family has compiled over the years. Naturally, my most cherished ones are of my and my sister’s childhood. Ten years ago taking photos with my digital camera, printing them out, and carefully organizing them into an album was an afternoon activity for my mom and me. These albums are the only fibers holding me to my oldest memories. And in looking at them, and in thinking about how the practice of compiling them got lost over the years, I am torn, because as soon as my last photo album ends, a new one begins on a different platform - online. The termination of my life in physical photo albums marks the beginning of my life in online ones. But this separation is conflicting for I cannot tell if I prefer my presence on one medium or the other. My tangible albums are works of art, featuring classically beautiful images of my life. However, my online images are separately special for they are more ornate, filtered, edited, and accessible to the masses. Personal photography has taken a drastic change over the past few years, neither for better or worse, but nevertheless a transition is evident. Sitting on my couch looking at the tangible images in front of me, comparing them to the intangible digital images I have on my phone and computer, I easily understand that this shift can be completely attributed to the proliferation of digital social media.
Social media has changed the way we take, edit, distribute, and cherish photographs. With the advent and popularization of posting images online and connecting with others via “tagging” yourself in both your own and other’s images online, the need for tangible photo albums has basically vanished. Why waste time printing and organizing your photos in a physical book when you can collect yours and your peer’s on social media and compile an even larger online album? Due to a technology divide, the notion of photo sharing has become a topic of conversation across generations. Thus, while my mom may want to continue making physical albums, rather than adopt a new method of image sharing, I find it imperative to operate online. The way technology has changed (and will continue to change) the image industry points to the fact that the physical albums that I grew up with are eventually going to be obsolete. There are more benefits these days for adopters of technologically mediated photo sharing. In taking advantage of media and utilizing it to share your images (through Facebook, Instagram, Flikr etc.) you make it easier for others to be apart of your social experience. Not only does digital social media foster a simpler method for sharing images, but also makes the images you share visible to a plethora of people and as a result, invites them into your social life.
The 2015 notion of photo sharing is vastly different from the 2000’s notion. In merely fifteen years the idea of spreading yourself across social media for all to cherish has blossomed into a regular activity for all media users. Social media has allowed us to quantify our popularity through the number of friends we have and the amount of likes we are given on posted photos. So in order to obtain more friends and more likes we must be present on the site and continuously post information and images about ourselves. This form of human communication is relatively new. The past presents more formal, conservative practices of photo sharing, limited to physical books or emailing of photos to friends and the present is more invested in liberal broadcasting of our lives and images.
In understanding the different realms photo sharing existed and continues to exist in we can better grasp the need to embrace current technological practices and completely move our practices online. While this is easy for a millennial or even for someone of the previous generation, for those born before such times, adopting these innovating practices will be nearly impossible. So, those who recognize technology’s progression and follow it will face conflict when trying to communicate with those who do not progress (i.e. sending a photo to your grandma by mail). And while this is a current conflict for many of us, in the future, using digital social media to share images will be commonplace. In addition to sharing images via Facebook, other technologies like dropbox and photostreaming perpetuate the usefulness of online photo sharing as opposed to physical printing and sending. There have been serious advances in terms of technology and the world of image sharing, and there are plenty more to come. What is important to remember is that we live in a constantly changing world and while today one outlet for sharing is prominent, in a year from today it could be irrelevant. Thus, in order to stay in tune with society and be able to communicate both intimately and with the masses, it is imperative to keep up to date with trending technologies. Assuming incoming technologies has proved to be simple for those used to similar technologies already. Adopting Instagram during the height of Facebook was not an issue for Facebook users, rather, it was a choice users made in order to remain current online. And with the adoption of such, users assumed a multifaceted presence on digital social media. For the millennial generation, keeping up to date is a natural progression of our social interaction. Thus, investing in upcoming technologies is not a burden, but a voluntary act in order to remain an active participant in society.
I love old photo albums. In an armoire in my mom’s room sits close to twenty albums my family has compiled over the years. Naturally, my most cherished ones are of my and my sister’s childhood. Ten years ago taking photos with my digital camera, printing them out, and carefully organizing them into an album was an afternoon activity for my mom and me. These albums are the only fibers holding me to my oldest memories. And in looking at them, and in thinking about how the practice of compiling them got lost over the years, I am torn, because as soon as my last photo album ends, a new one begins on a different platform - online. The termination of my life in physical photo albums marks the beginning of my life in online ones. But this separation is conflicting for I cannot tell if I prefer my presence on one medium or the other. My tangible albums are works of art, featuring classically beautiful images of my life. However, my online images are separately special for they are more ornate, filtered, edited, and accessible to the masses. Personal photography has taken a drastic change over the past few years, neither for better or worse, but nevertheless a transition is evident. Sitting on my couch looking at the tangible images in front of me, comparing them to the intangible digital images I have on my phone and computer, I easily understand that this shift can be completely attributed to the proliferation of digital social media.
Social media has changed the way we take, edit, distribute, and cherish photographs. With the advent and popularization of posting images online and connecting with others via “tagging” yourself in both your own and other’s images online, the need for tangible photo albums has basically vanished. Why waste time printing and organizing your photos in a physical book when you can collect yours and your peer’s on social media and compile an even larger online album? Due to a technology divide, the notion of photo sharing has become a topic of conversation across generations. Thus, while my mom may want to continue making physical albums, rather than adopt a new method of image sharing, I find it imperative to operate online. The way technology has changed (and will continue to change) the image industry points to the fact that the physical albums that I grew up with are eventually going to be obsolete. There are more benefits these days for adopters of technologically mediated photo sharing. In taking advantage of media and utilizing it to share your images (through Facebook, Instagram, Flikr etc.) you make it easier for others to be apart of your social experience. Not only does digital social media foster a simpler method for sharing images, but also makes the images you share visible to a plethora of people and as a result, invites them into your social life.
The 2015 notion of photo sharing is vastly different from the 2000’s notion. In merely fifteen years the idea of spreading yourself across social media for all to cherish has blossomed into a regular activity for all media users. Social media has allowed us to quantify our popularity through the number of friends we have and the amount of likes we are given on posted photos. So in order to obtain more friends and more likes we must be present on the site and continuously post information and images about ourselves. This form of human communication is relatively new. The past presents more formal, conservative practices of photo sharing, limited to physical books or emailing of photos to friends and the present is more invested in liberal broadcasting of our lives and images.
In understanding the different realms photo sharing existed and continues to exist in we can better grasp the need to embrace current technological practices and completely move our practices online. While this is easy for a millennial or even for someone of the previous generation, for those born before such times, adopting these innovating practices will be nearly impossible. So, those who recognize technology’s progression and follow it will face conflict when trying to communicate with those who do not progress (i.e. sending a photo to your grandma by mail). And while this is a current conflict for many of us, in the future, using digital social media to share images will be commonplace. In addition to sharing images via Facebook, other technologies like dropbox and photostreaming perpetuate the usefulness of online photo sharing as opposed to physical printing and sending. There have been serious advances in terms of technology and the world of image sharing, and there are plenty more to come. What is important to remember is that we live in a constantly changing world and while today one outlet for sharing is prominent, in a year from today it could be irrelevant. Thus, in order to stay in tune with society and be able to communicate both intimately and with the masses, it is imperative to keep up to date with trending technologies. Assuming incoming technologies has proved to be simple for those used to similar technologies already. Adopting Instagram during the height of Facebook was not an issue for Facebook users, rather, it was a choice users made in order to remain current online. And with the adoption of such, users assumed a multifaceted presence on digital social media. For the millennial generation, keeping up to date is a natural progression of our social interaction. Thus, investing in upcoming technologies is not a burden, but a voluntary act in order to remain an active participant in society.