Photo Credit: Stefanie Gordon via Mashable
Stefanie Gordon's unique picture of the space shuttle Endeavor's last launch was made through her airplane window and uploaded to Twitpic, a social media photo sharing site.
While Gordon's images have brought her momentary fame, her experiences may also help us to understand how our recalcitrant traditional media system works in an age of social media.
When Gordon uploaded her short video of the shuttle launch to Twitpic she only asked that if someone wanted to use it they needed to only spelled her name right and gave her a credit line. Gordon was not asking for compensation, just recognition -- a public acknowledgement of who she was, she was presenting and protecting an image of self.
The media soon grabbed the video, some paid her for her effort, while others failed to even give her credit. Although there is a great deal of discussion surrounding intellectual copyright involving this event, an even more interesting aspect to consider is Gordon's interest in sharing what she experienced with others. Some people might say that Gordon's motive to share her pictures was motivate by attention seeking and ego-stroking. At the same time, there is something much more complicated about human behavior at hand here.
Gordon's perception of herself was not as a journalist, but as a passenger on an airplane flying near the launch site. Her pictures, however, changed not only how she views herself, but how others view her. On Twitter, Gordon writes, "I am speechless! Brian Williams knows who I am! Video hero of the day: Stefanie Gordon of Hoboken, NJ."
Such events, and our ability to share them with others through words and pictures in a heart beat, is creating culture of the "flash-celebrity." In the limelight one moment and gone the next.
While Gordon's friends and family will recall her "claim to fame" for years to come, the media, through omission of credit, has already relegated her to anonymity. It will be nearly impossible for Gordon to maintain an image of self beyond guest appearances on NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC news. Gordon's frustration with the mainstream press seems less about being dismissed and more about her expectations surrounding her desire to be recognized for her initiative.
Through social media, Twitter and Twitpic, Gordon's social construction of self is historically contingent -- her images and subsequent media attention -- are directly related to a specific event. Research indicates how many new technologies such as computational photography, computer programming languages, social media, and mobile technologies to name just a few, increases productivity and creativity. At least that is the perception.
Technologies such as digital photography, Web interfaces, cell phones, text messaging, cloud computing, and many more innovations, have made us more creative and productive. There are, of course, downsides to the immediate, pervasive, and ubiquitous nature of emerging technologies. Consider for a moment, how different writing a letter by hand is to sending and receiving a message on Twitter.
In an age of multi-tasking, we have become accustomed to making pictures with our camera phones, texting a friend, checking Facebook, sending a tweet, seeming all at the same time. Meanwhile, some may argue, perhaps with good reason, that these activities are really not making us more productive or creative at all. Instead, new technologies have created a generation of distracted, self-absorbed, and compulsive individuals. In other words, with the advance of new technologies people, even though people create words and images, they are increasingly careless about how they communicate in a digital age.
In addition to productivity and creativity there is the idea that new technologies, especially social media, improves interaction between individuals. Like productivity and creativity, social interaction is one of the those problematic "yes" but "no" situations. At issue here is how people attempt to present a positive image of themselves, through words and pictures using new media technologies. As sociologist Erving Goffman discovered in the late 1950s, long before the emergence of social media, once somehow presents an image of themselves, in whatever form, they must work hard to maintain appearances. Goffman called this phenomena "face work." and idea that seems relevant today as illustration by the number of times people change their Facebook profiles, or the way in which we compulsively upload images to Twitter. Much of this behavior, it can be argued, is related to how social media affords individuals greater opportunities to build a sense of self-worth and self-importance. In a world seemingly out of control, images and words, construct a framework around an individuals experience -- one that can be immediately shared in order to establish and maintain a positive self image.
Maintaining a positive self image, Goffman suggests, is incumbent on the expectations and obligations an individual believes to be true about themselves. Social media, then, is a mirror in which an individual can look into as they create an identity which may or may not be entirely true. Not that this doesn't occur in the real world as well, but it seems to grow exponentially on the web.
While this analysis presents the darker side of emerging media, there are also many benefits that counteract some of the negative effects. Nevertheless, it is important to evaluate whether or not the expectations and obligations we create for ourselves through the use of new technologies shapes our self-identity in negative ways.
For example, how people present themselves while in college on a Facebook profile may not be how they want to see themselves when they are looking for a job or trying to get into medical school. In other words, the expectations and obligations of how we relate to one another changes over time. In the past, our ability to create and maintain a positive self-image may have been more easily controlled simply because opportunities for interaction seemed far fewer. Social media has changed all of this.
Considering Stefanie Gordon's experience, we can begin to understand how social media can make us more productive and creative. However, more importantly, new technologies are now affording us unique opportunities to create positive self images for ourselves -- even though often fleeting.
