I decided to design a poster to encourage students around the college to donate Snapsterpieces to our hitRECord collaboration. I created a snapchat account for students to send their snaps to and I plan to collect them from there and add them to our collaboration. I printed these out and stuck them up around the PJ Carrolls Building. I am also planning on distributing them throughout the other buildings at DKIT.
After studying some of the subcultures of the 1900’s such as the teds, the mods and the skinheads, I came to notice the typical elements which define a subculture. And in doing so I decided to write about the modern subculture that is Facebook.
Facebook can be described as a subculture of the Social Networking culture. Since it’s emergence as the world’s most popular Social Networking Giant back in 2009 with 200 million users (a number which has grown to 1.11 billion today), Facebook has become the topic of much debate between those who take part in the modern internet trend and those who do not. Much like the clash between the elite and the teddy boys of the 1950s, the debate circulating around use of Facebook has been largely fueled by the differences between two groups of people: those who are internet savvy and those who aren’t – though some may say it is just another misunderstanding between the young and the old.
Though some internet sources may argue that Facebook should be described as a type of media rather than a subculture, I feel that there is plenty ground on which to argue the latter. I believe that Facebook can be described as a world-wide subculture because, in many ways, it separates those who are on it from those who are not and thus creates a culture of “users” specific to one type of Social Network.
For those who use Facebook, it provides a whole separate dimension of communication unavailable to non-members. For example: many people use Facebook as a means of connecting with and getting to know new people. “Add me on Facebook” is a common phrase used soon after two users come into contact with one another and intend on staying in touch. It is a prerequisite of online relationships – a change from the old exchanging of phone numbers – an action which is now only performed should two users need to know one another on a more personal level. To people who are not on Facebook, the idea of having many of the people they know readily connected seems a negative one. Being a member of Facebook myself, I fail to understand the logic behind why this might be a negative issue. But having spoken to non-members I received some interesting insights.
My father: a man in his early fifties, a non-user, reckons that “Facebook will be the death of us”. When asked whether he thinks he will ever become a Facebook member, his response was an immediate “No!”. Having been affected by the moral panic associated with #NeckNominate, he believes that Facebook brings more danger to society than good. He believes that the site brings out an unhealthy competitive nature in people. Before Facebook, we were competing with our friends, our nearest and our dearest. But now we are competing with the entire world – that struggle for “likes” and acknowledgement and the sense of validation when you get it is something every Facebook user can relate to. He believes the site makes bullying easier and, simultaneously, makes it more difficult to punish. As a result, depression is on the rise and suicide has become a major issue among younger generations than ever before. To sum it up, my Father is fearful of Facebook’s potential. With the ever improving and developing technologies of today, if #NeckNominate brought about four Irish and UK deaths in one week then what will the next fad bring? His opinion on the subculture seems justified.
But Facebook users may defend the existence of the online realm because they are the only ones who truly know the nature of the subculture. Users know it is important to be aware that owning an account comes with a lot of responsibilities. I believe that if a person is not responsible enough to use the site in a safe and humane manner then they should be exempt from logging on. Aside from the responsibilities thrust upon members of the site, Facebook users are also subject to a whole set of unique norms. The subculture has developed a language all of its own; with words such as “like”, “tag”, “poke”, “comment”, “frape”, “creep” and “unfriend” becoming a regular part of our general vocabulary. Taking photos on a night out is now only the first step in a social process – the last step is to upload them to Facebook and tag all relevant friends. Being a user myself, I can personally vouch for many of the positive aspects of Facebook’s existence: reduction in phone and newspaper expenses being only two of them. Being a part of the Facebook subculture makes me feel “in the loop” at all times which is something that smartphone technology has made even more possible – I suppose owning a smart phone might be one of our stylistic traits. Many mornings, while driving to college I’ve heard “new news” on the radio which had already broken and circulated my news-feed 8 hours before.
Like with existing subcultures, there is a territorial aspect to being a Facebook member. Our territory is not “the hood” or the street or any physical location but it does exist online. When our territory is broken into by a parent or an older relative we get offended – and often they will be blocked from viewing our content because we don’t want them invading our virtual social bubble.
Just as the teds, the mods and the rockers were slammed for their refusal to conform to traditional class definitions and social ways, Facebook users have been accused of being anti-social, lazy, parasitic, narcissistic and too self-disclosing.
Of course, it is not just a case of users versus non-users. The Facebook subculture faces competition from other Social Networking trends that are competing for dominance and popularity. Twitter is one – with it’s “tweet”, “twit”, “twitpic”, “retweet”, “favourite”, “follow” and “hashtag” being only a small collection of words cultivated by the rival community. And then, of course, there is always that body of stubborn rebels who refuse to get “caught up in the whole thing”: those perfectly capable of using the internet to it’s full potential without being lured into the Facebook realm.
I believe that Facebook is a perfectly justified example of a modern subculture while indeed also being a forum on which many subcultures can merge, grow and communicate.
It’s been a week since I’ve launched our hitRECord collaboration using the hitRECord.org site. Find it here: Snapsterpieces – Lets spread the fun!
I now have two group members who were interested on working with me on my idea! Pauric Martin and Ashley Dolan.
In order to gather interest we’ve used a number of social media techniques. First I tweeted multiple SnapChat and Snapsterpiece oriented twitter accounts to raise awareness among fans of the app. Next, we set up an open Facebook page and appealed to the public for donations. Lastly I posted up some of my own Snapsterpieces to my personal Facebook page with explanations attached, appealing for others to do the same. All methods generated only a small amount of response. Our tweets turned out to be most effective. I came into contact with a lovely guy from Boston called Michael Platco whom you can find here: @MichaelPlatco. His Snapsterpieces are phenomenal – I think they are both very creative and absolutely hilarious. View some of his work here: michaelplatco.tumblr.com -you wont be disappointed I assure you!
Michael showed some interest in our collaboration idea and he was kind enough to agree to donate some of his snaps to our cause. His involvement in our project is key to us gathering more followers as he has quite a large twitter following due to his work. We are very happy to have him on board and we hope to do his Snaps some justice with our viral video.
We are still searching for other contributions. We need to find more ways of spreading our idea so that people will be intrigued and feel happy to donate their snaps to us. One option that we’re exploring at the moment is the idea of creating fun, colourful posters appealing for Snapsterpiece donations and sticking them up around the college. I could set up a SnapChat account especially for the cause and collect donations through screenshots. This may attract the interest of the majority of students who are not savvy with Twitter and WordPress.
We’ve been asked to collaborate using Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s website hitRECord.org on a multimedia artifact based upon an element of contemporary internet culture. Considering the week that it was, an obvious move would be toward the relatively new Social Media “craze” that has swept through the country over the past fortnight known, infamously at this point, as #NeckNominate. I won’t delve into the details of the trend because I think that, by now, it has been thoroughly exhausted by all forms of the media. Indeed it is tragic that two young people have been killed in Ireland trying to conform to the outrageous trend and this is surely a signal that Social Networking combined with Peer Pressure can be a deadly accelerator for vulnerable and easily inclined humans’ irrationalities when it comes to the need to fit in. I feel, however, that this “trend” has run it’s course. I believe it was a flash in the pan – and just 3 days after the weekend during which the two deaths occurred, the topic is now virtually non-existent on my Facebook news feed. I think that by the coming weekend, tragic #NeckNominate will be nothing but a cold reminder of just how much momentum Social Media can add to a new trend – that it can be born and die again within one week. But I digress.
My choice of topic for this collaboration has stemmed from my personal affection for creativity. I have, only recently, joined the Smart Phone trend that is Snap Chat. I’ve found myself more interested in the feature of the app that allows the user to utilize a basic colour palette and their finger on the touch screen as a paint brush to add creative essence and humor to their snaps. These small and simple, creative pieces of communication are known within the Snap Chat community as Snapsterpieces. Snapsterpieces have managed to find their own niche within social media among people like me who like to create. Snap Chat provides a great means of sharing your doodles among your friends in a bid to make them laugh or smile – and it’s easy too! A mess-free, back-to-basics tool kit and a diverse, photographic canvas on which to paint? Of course I’ll spend my 50 minute commute to college fiddling with it. And I’m not the only one: http://www.oninstagram.com/snapsterpiece.
My idea is to first collect as many Snapsterpieces from the public as possible. I will be appealing for people to donate their Snapsterpieces and they will hopefully feel encouraged to join in on the collaboration. After that I hope that we will have a means for creating an artefact based on the notion of quick art as a means of communication and how this might effect future communication trends. If anything, I might just find an answer for why I spend 20 minutes working on something that my peers will only get to view for a maximum of 10 seconds – if they’re even interested in looking for that long.
The first step I’ve taken to get this project off the ground is releasing my own record on hitRECord. Initially I am appealing for donations of Snapsterpieces of all sorts. I started this record 4 days ago and so far I’ve had zero responses so I need to amp up my appeal. I will now begin tweeting about my appeal daily using the hashtags #SnapChat, #Snapaterpiece and #hitRECord. I will share the link among my Facebook friends and I will appeal to my class mates to join me on my mission. I will also contribute to existing records to get my name out there as an active member – maybe then people will be more inclined to help me in return.
Hopefully by the time my next post on this topic is up, I will be joined by 2 equally as inspired class mates who are willing to join in on the fun.
Sian Gilsenan - Multimedia Projects 