Many of the photographs on Flickr are images of the photographers themselves and of the photographers’ families and friends.
These are often accompanied by comments which give further details of family lives, friendships and collegial relationships.
The co-existance of the private/public space so often associated with online groups,is illustrated really clearly on the Flickr site and some of the shots I have seen are really intimate or of really important family moments - weddings, births even.
Meta photography is very popular and some people put deliberately provocative photos of themselves online. TT has a lovely post on this topic here.
It is as if in some spaces on theInternet there is a very strong sense of affinity, of trust and of defiance of all the stranger danger and discourses around the abuse of digital affordances by pornographers.
I had noticed when I was looking at Wiccan teens that in say 2002 - 2003 there were a great number of teens putting photos of themselves on thier webpages. Yet now this has massively decreased, presumably because of increased awareness of the danger discourses I referred to above.
I don’t know why, therefore there is this diffrence on the Flickr site. Maybe the ‘danger’ factor has fallen into obeyance since the stronger discourses are abbout the value of the photograph and the value of the affinity space itself. Maybe because of the ubiquity of digital cameras, digital photos etc that people feel less threatened by what can happen. The Flickr community maybe values the digital image so highly they cannot see the fear factor anymore?
People seem to want to offer a visual narrative of parts of theirlives, seeing themselves online, presenting a particular identity, and telling people in their comments, how to read the pictures.
Is there too much trust on this site?
Middle Earth Duck Pond
Originally uploaded by BobJack.
My ephemeral digital posts lengthen with time, expanding with a confidence to say new things, and garnished with a certain recklessness. More involvement with an online community of bloggers, readers (both known and unknown), and Flickr-sharers is a causal factor, put together with an increase in blog consumption. So my/our blogs evolve, including this one, as we develop heteronymic works, discover new voices, new ideas and new skills.
Dr Joolz has talked about the kind of osmotic learning that takes place around blogging: a bit of html, the subtle art of tagging and so on. Recently, I’ve been wanting to index my posts but found the Blogger advice too dense. Easy to get lost in the hinterland of geek technology. Then I got into Blogstreet, attracted to the neighbourhood/proximity concept, but I find I’m out of my depth there too. And most recently of all I’ve been looking at RSS feeds but can’t quite grasp how they work, or even if I’d have the time or energy to engage with them.
Is this technological hinterland a place to colonise, or is it best left alone if all you’re interested in is the writing? The trouble is the writing itself and the technology to write subtley infuse one another. Perhaps, to be lost in the hinterland is to wish for a map.
So, the farshah post (3 March) on my blog drew some comment - that was interesting, but consider my surprise when the image went ’straight to number one’ with 29 hits on my Flickr! That’s probably the way I tagged it (Lady Sovereign’s pretty popular, too!). Reflecting on this made me do a double-take. I’ve been trying to keep the focus on the blog and the blogging itself, but when you actually pick it up for inspection, you find it’s interlaced with so many other experiences, interactions and media. An intricate web of technologies. So Ruth sent me the photo-message of her tattoo. I emailed her to check out if it was OK to post it. She got back saying that was ‘cool’. I uploaded the image on to Flickr and then the rest is history (of course, in doing this I superimposed my own reading, but that’s not really the point). I’m thinking of the intricate web of mobile phone; email; Flickr; Blogger and ensuing comment. But even that doesn’t quite capture it - it’s too linear, because as I’m rather slowly and perhaps a little reluctantly discovering Flickr is a dynamic world in itself. Through tagging that image becomes part of the affinity-based folksonomy of the Flickr social world. Is Flickr in the study? I’m not sure any more. Well, I only have a handful of photos there and I’ve rather belatedly added TT and DrJ as contacts - I’m not sure I have the energy to engage with a new social network, but at the same time feel a bit awkward standing there, with only a couple of friends and this picture-sharing party going on all around me! I didn’t initially see my blog as a visual space at all - I was persuaded because it looked drab against others I was visiting, and, on a more theory-driven note, I was aware of the need to explore the affordances. At the moment it seems that the autoethnographic focus remains in tact, but the borderlands are rich and interesting and must not be neglected.
OK so I have not written here for a while but I have been thinking thinking thinking.
I am learning stuff that is about the meta business of blogging, but I am also learning lots of things as a blogger. That is, I am learning about the process of blogging at the same time as learning to be a blogger.
Here are some of the things I have learned:
1. I have started to develop technical web-based skills…
Such as using a Flickr account to store and organise pictures. Thus, in having a blog, I have also developed a need to use an additional space on the Internet and this in turn means I have to acquire new skills in order to use it well.
I know how to
- upload photos;
- put them on a blog;
- make them available publicly;
- or privately;
- organise my photos in sets ;
- label photos with catchy tags.
(Tags are listed on Google and so my photos are more likely to be visited by others when they are surfing.It is a skill to pick tags which are likely to attract others - e.g. place names; brand names; things that bloggers seem interested in (e.g. graffitti).)
I have quickly become excited by the idea of people seeing and commenting on photos I post.It is clear, btw, that Flickr understands the mentality of people who blog; they are supporting the obsession of leading people to your work via tags etc.
I have been very careful to label as ‘private’ any photos of people who have not agreed to be on my blog. This stops people being able to see the photos by just surfing - they need a password. So I am learning a bit about the complexity of ethics and also about finding an audience for my work.
2. I have learned little bits of HTML - especially when I wanted to make my site PINK.
3. I am developing a new way of writing. I am learning to structure small pieces of text. I tend to link back to ongoing themes across posts (e.g. text as place in January; Parkour / Pourquoi again n January through to Feb.) or there are even jokes across blogs . I m learning to use a range of multimodal ways of communicating.
4. Commenters are very important to the substantive feel of my blog . I reply often to comments.
5. In addition to comments on my blog I sometimes have e mail correspondance with readers of posts. This is backstage talk which highlights something about the public nature of the blog.
6. Yet there is also an intimate feel to the blog. I have a sense of who is reading now and the way in which my affinity space is developing, means I have a slightly more secure sense of voice. But this still feels precarious and flexible. I want my blog to work and feel anxious about it.
7. There are some blogs (Trois Tetes; Vedana; a lesser extent e-selves) which definitely are weaving themselves together and are working as a unit. The fact that the frst two of these are people who meet in meat space lends the whole thing an extra dimension. Why are they blogging at each other? People are reading each others blogs, responding and keeping in step. This linkage seems very important to the bloggers involved. And it has been very exciting that Anya and I are emailing each other (see 5 below.)
8. I have elaborate jokes which depend on knowledge of previous posts or require newcomers to read previous posts which I will link to in order to help.
9. When writing a post I feel like a journalist, sorting through evidence in cyberspace - sometimes looking for substantiating evidence or proof; sometimes for inspiration. But in terms of reporting on stuff from meatspace, I definitely go about my daily life looking for things to blog. I look at the world with a blogger’s eye - and that is the bit I find hard - bringing meat space in. It feels awkward, odd. It feels more authentic somehow to depend on the web.
10. I sometimes do not feel pleased with my post. I sometimes revise the clarity of my English. I sometimes do not know what to write but feel driven by the discipline of posting daily and this is an interesting thing that I have set this discipline. It is important to get things to sound right, to have a balance. To be economical with language - to make sure it is a proper piece of web text. It HAS to be multimodal to justify itself.
11. I feel I have to defend the activity. Frequently people say to me, (in meat space, and after I have explained to tem what a blog is) ‘How do you have the time to do THAT?’ and even ‘Lucky you, I would not have time to do that.’ This often feels like a value laden judgement of how I spend my time and I feel that people disapprove of this activity. I can justify it on two levels, one that it is part of my research, but secondly that it is about sharpening my mind and developing skills. However it gives me an insight into how young people feel, when they are attacked for spending a lot of time on the Internet. They must know they are learning a lot, but it is thoroughly devalued. Learning IS timeconsuming, but that does not mean one should not do it.
BLOG ON CHAPS!!!
