How does a website or application such as Instagram relay a sense of inherent immediacy within photo messaging, as well as representations of emotions such as anxiety, self obsession and insecurities?

“To collect photographs is to collect the world” –Sontag, 1997.

To photograph is to appropriate objects, places and people. Photographs contain visual legitibility and can store and create an emotional impact. They serve as social rituals for numerous events such as birthdays, graduations, weddings, funerals and all together fun times.
However it can also be used as a tool of power within categorisation and survelliance. Modern photography includes graphic filters, distortion and editing. But wait- this is not a new thing! Digital manipulation has been going on since the 1840s. Modern visualisation technologies such as photography fundamentally change how we experience the world. A picture may be framed or distorted, there is always a presumption that something prexists or was never there in the first place.

What lead to the popularity of selfies/ Instagram?

• new technology
• the internet
• attention
• appeal
• jumping on the bandwagon

Selfies can reflect an imagined self, popularity, self obbession and anxiety. Viewing and posting photos can be used to control anxiety. For example seeing a photo of a deceased or ill loved one can create a sense of peace and nostalgia, but in contrast the same image can create stress from memories. 

Photographs capture what we/the human eye fails to notice. It can create a sense of immortality. After an event has ended, the photograph lives on, serving as a memory and eyes to see through. However it captures more than just an image, but also pain, sorrow and death.

The conceptual framework is an important concept whereas the people, photographer and the world are forever entwined, entities that cannot exist without affecting each other. Influences are drawn from one another continuously. This is can reason why photographs can be perceived and interpreted differently, as well as holding more significant value than to other people.

How has photography changed since 1977?

Photography has been digitalised by;

• cheaper equiptment
• wider access
• merging the camera onto other technologies such as the camera phone

Is there still a form of truth behind edited photos? 

While photoshop morphs a photo, there is still a form of truth behind it. Within itself it has become a new form of art thanks to the accessibility and distribution of the internet. All photographs are framed in one way of another showing a certain perspective or image. A constructed identity has been created through social media and instagram, ourselves being portrayed exactly how we would like ourselves to be seen however this can be problematic. 

(In my own eyes, this image captures accurately of what was happening at that point and time. After getting the new iPhone 5s, we had decided to play around with the new camera and sharing options. It holds in that point and time the moment we were sharing and creating. This is the truth.)

Camera phones as a medium
The camera phone has created a sense of immediacy, which allows photographs to be communicated almost immediately after they have been captured. Photographs are now related to the time of communication, as opposed to the time the image was captured. These concepts are included:

Spacial immediacy:
 Camera phone photo messaging acts as ritual communication within a media presence.
Inherent immediacy of photo imaging:
Advancing telecommunication media to overcome geography by enabling users to communicate over distance
Communicating the now:
Photo messaging is about experiencing the moment as it happens

As a society we are witnessing and living in the phase of portable and personal technologies. This invites the exploration of these telecommunications and that includes taking digital images of everything, including ourseves. The program of instagram has kept things as interesting by introducting filtered videos as an option.
The act of selfie-ing has becoming culturalised because of its immediacy. We have control. We can alter and delete images as we like. We can create a constructed version of ourselves. We are able to share images never before, more cost effective and efficiently than ever.

However, there has been criticism. Parents and teachers have said that are signs of self obsession, depravity or narcissm. As throughout human nature and the nature of visual sharing of content, aesthetics have always been highly valued. Unrealised images set standards of beauty too high which can result in body dissasification and negative self-esttem.

What has facebook, youtube and the uprise of instagram resulted in?
The positives:

• Photos of real sized women with real beauty have been gaining in popularity
• Seflies can be normalising and empowering a person, authenicating oneself as a result of celebrating personal achievements and of real people.

The negatives: 

• reliance on social validation
• needing constant positive feedback and attention

Although these are not necessarily a bad thing, it is when this desire is not met insecurities can make oneself vulnerable to things like depression, anxiety and poor self-worth. Withdrawals from applications such as instagram and social media can create boredom, anxiety and a feeling of missing out. As the craving to stay updated increases as does the feeling of anxiety. 

Within social media by documenting what you do, where you go, who you are with, what you are eating, what you are wearing, what you have bought... you end up comparing yourself to others. This over analysing can create a sense of self-doubt and jealousy. These feelings can be created by just sitting at a computer. 

This video parodises instagram in the most accurate way.

A rant by Olga K- problematising all the things wrong with instagram.