Photagraphy n.
The process of producing images with the express intent to put them on Facebook.
We all know them, the people that post 8 million photos of themselves in practically the same poses, with practically the same people, doing practically the. same. thing. every. weekend. What would Facebook be without their photo albums? For that matter, where would we be without the webcam self portrait? The outstretched arm shot that captures emo fringes and squished up cleavages? Or the classic cell phone in mirror shot? The world would be a poorer place without these photos. I think we should celebrate them. Failing that, let us mercilessly make fun of them.
Lemme be honest, I would hazard a guess that my Facebook photo usage is probably with the top 20 percentile of my friends. I am aware of the saying "people in glass houses should not (watsit?) take photos of themselves and post them on Facebook". I'm down with some self-portraits. Sometimes it's necessary (traveling alone). Sometimes it's arty. But sometimes, sometimes you should NOT post these photos on Facebook. Please. Take my word for it.
It's an interesting thing, this photo sharing business. A friend's photo album is called (something along the lines of ) "We Like to Take Photos of Each Other and Then We Know We Had a Good Time". Yes. Exactly. It was nice to take those photos and then it was nice to comment on them. We're social animals. We were maintaining social bonds. We can think of it as a cyber social grooming session. Just like these pretty pictures:
link, link, link,
p.s. for all you nerds, this paper by Ellison, Stenfield and Lampe is worth a look. Basically they say Facebook = opportunity to gain social capital. They also say it provides "greater benefits for users experiencing low-self esteem and low life satisfaction". Gulp.
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