Digital bullshit arguably first became mainstream with the invention of Photoshop. This complicated and pricey software was mainly used by professional photographers, magazine editors, and the like in 1987.
Fast forward to today, and the gist of this once complicated software is now made accessible to even the youngest Instagram users with apps like Facetune and RetouchMe. With the most popular celebrities constantly posting altered images of their bodies, there is no wonder why users “engage in maladaptive body comparison processes” which can affect their self-esteem and lead to eating and mental disorders.
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| Russian influencer Anastasiya Kvitko. Photo: instagram.com/beauty.false |
There are viral Facebook page admins, like Blair, who, like many Instagram influencers, make their career by bullshitting online. He creates memes for his Facebook page, America’s Last Line of Defense, with the intent of criticizing today’s divisive politics while adding to the division himself. He realizes he is feeding people garbage, but he is adding to the problem every couple of hours when he hits post.
With the influx of lies and bullshit online, it is important to be a proactive consumer of online media. Shirley Chapian is arguably the complete opposite of that. But who can blame her? She is almost an 80-year-old who uses Facebook. In compliance with Moor’s advice, these potentially powerful technologies are quickly emerging with even more robust technologies on the horizon, and users must assess their consequences. Cultural and technological norms need to shift and consumers must automatically act wary of everything they read online, or else your intelligence, too, may be compared to a potato online.
You should focus more on one example photoshop or facebook and delve deeper into that instead of talking about there other. You do not talk about the readings until the last paragraph, consider involving that argument earlier. Your second photo does not show up in the blog. Possibly give a personal example of seeing this bullshit.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you introduced Blair to the reader because you have to assume the reader doesn’t know who he is. Your blog is more of a summary of the readings rather than insight into them. You just explained what the authors of the readings talked about without pulling out key ideas. Also, your second picture doesn’t show up. You can preview your post before submitting it. I like all the links to external sources, but when you click on them, they should open a new tab.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great tie into the bullshit that Blair creates and also a very valid point since pictures are so prominent in our digital lives today and the effects can be grave. I suggest focusing on one topic because you started with photoshopped images and then explained how it progressed to facebook and didn't tie it back into the images which makes it seem like two different thoughts. Also, when clicking on the links, it redirects the blog to the page linked so it would be helpful to have it open in a different tab so the reader can easily go back and forth through the content.
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