iPhone 5 "promo" video

Here's a hilarious parody video about the soon-to-be-released iPhone 5. Definitely supports the idea that people use image sharing to construct a version of themselves that could be very different from reality.

Instagramation Part 3

Whatsup Bloggers?

So I had an epiphany. An Instagram epiphany. An Instiphany, if you will.

YES we use visual media as a way of constructing ourselves, as a way of constructing a representation of ourselves, in the minds of our "perceivers". But what if our photos are saying something we don't want them to say?

Today, I was looking through my sister's Instagram, and through my best friend's Instagram, two people that I have known pretty much my whole life. And I realised that this is something which we haven't really touched on in group research. I realised this limitation.

 My best friend was posting pictures of her trip to Hawaii earlier this year, and a lot of the photos were the very abstract-deep-and-meaningful-picture-of-a-cocktail-by-the-Waikiki-surf kind of thing. I know why she was posting those photos, because they were a representation of her deepest passion: to travel. Preferably to places that have a little ocean :P. But the comments that followed didn't mimick her intentions... in particular, a photo of her in a glamorous rooftop hotel pool had people tagging her as "rich rich b*tch" and "If only my dad could afford to send me to those places".... All meant as jokes, of course, but not the image she wanted to portray.

It's all well and good to want to communicate your own, constructed self-identity over the web. But the limitation of visual media is a lack of words. A lack of explanation. Isn't that crucial to constructing an image?

What if we're all just getting the wrong idea?

xx Nicola

The Facebook Profile Pic.

This video sums it up what i've said below in my posts.

A tumblr rampage

Yesterday, I went on a tumblr rampage. 

Sick of my current blog, I decided to create an entirely new one, to create a new online persona for myself. I picked a title, chose a profile picture, selected a theme, and began a half-hour of frantic tag-searching, cool-blog-finding, uploading and reblogging of pictures and graphics that I liked. This was the result (actually, this is just the first page. As I said, I went on a rampage. You can view the whole blog here):

What can people tell about me from this tumblr, I wondered? I came up with the following things:

• I like the song 'Good Feeling' by Flo Rida, and enjoy making witty titles and URLs of blogs from song lyrics. 
• I think that posing in front of a web cam pulling my hair back and tilting my head makes for a super hot profile pic. 
• I like cute animals (note the chimpanzee & tiger, and kitten & converse pics).
• Colourful jewellery is my style, as are homemade rainbow iceblocks.
• I've been outdoor iceskating (check out my Facebook album 'New York Winter 2012 YAY' - hope this isn't hypocritical considering the other post I made here), and at some point I've been lying on a hammock in Costa Rica.
• I like pretty photos of trees in autumn. 
• I like taking indie polaroid photos of sunsets, parties, and fun times with friends, or siblings, or kids in Costa Rica. 
• My hair is to thin to hold curls (#devastated).
• Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite film series.  

Are these things an accurate reflection of who I am? Or are they a selective construction of who I want to be? (Cue: suspenseful music and dramatic look).