Social engagement through images in the online sphere

Social Engagement Through Images Online

The author of "Comments about Social Engagement through Images in the Online Sphere" asserts that digital photography combined with online social networks has wrought a significant three-fold change in the experience of human existence. Firstly, the photographic image has been transformed into a being unto itself, has become a subject with agency in its own right, and thus must be apprehended in a language of its own beyond our conventional, historical means of relating to photography. Secondly, the author argues that these technological advances in photography and information technology have transformed our sense of community and the means by which we create communities. Thirdly, the writer posits that online sharing of images transforms singular events into plural events, related from multiple perspectives, existing continuously in a world of their own.

In support of these viewpoints, the author makes references to Heidegger's existential take on being and the philosophical ruminations on photography of Jean-Luc Nancy and Louis Kaplan. These supporting references have an interesting way of moving from the abstract to the more concrete, and in that way they do enhance both the theoretical grounding and the clarity of the author's assertions.

The author's introductory paragraphs concern photographs Eden Abergil, a young former soldier in the Israeli military, shared on her social networking site, and this portion of the article succeeds in making the first argument topical and relevant. The photos show her armed and posing next to restrained Palestinian prisoners. What were simply images from the young woman's everyday past caused a scandal when people outside of her recognized social network viewed them. The photographs, while presented in the context their creator intended, said something to other viewers that she didn't intend to convey. They told a story of their own, different from the story being told by their creator.

Also successful is the other introductory material concerning audience members photographing an event, multiplying the experience of the event in an exponential fashion via sharing online with both unique and overlapping communities.

To this reviewer, that is the extent of the author's success in this article, and even that success is not build on a novelty of thought. It is a basic tenet in communication theory that the message sent is not necessarily the message received. Sender and recipient have always had to negotiate a common understanding of shared information, whether the medium of exchange is non-verbal, oral, written, or visual. Similarly, the notion that perception is reality, reflected in the third noted concept, is not new.