Captured Moments

Abstract

As photography takes center stage on today's social media platforms, given the ease of modern capture devices (i.e. mobile phones, point and shoot cameras, tablets, etc.), the ability to produce and publish images occurs at a much quicker rate than the humble Kodak Brownie camera afforded the masses when introduced in January 1900. This enhanced ease has generated an opportunity for the everyday photographer to creatively communicate through the distribution of their images. This paper applies research results from a qualitative visual ethnographic study focusing on the non-verbal posts of a select group of Facebook users. The Dell Hymes' SPEAKING framework was used to structure the visual data; analysis leveraged Gerry Philipsen's Speech Codes Theory and James W. Carey's Ritual Communication Theory contributes to the creation of a communicative framework for the non-verbal social media postings.In conclusion, what emerges through the data is a visual speech code that tacitly leverages traditional photographic genres while at the same time supporting a system of meanings and symbols that enhance the instantaneous posts and communications of the day-to-day ebb and flow of life.

Keeping Memories Alive: A Decennial Study of Social Media Reminiscing, Memories, and Nostalgia

“…This practice has been of interest for researchers for decades (see, for instance, Chalfen (1987) for interesting early work on how people take, edit, show, and store visual snapshots of their everyday life], yet is probably more in question today than ever before. This practice is often referred to as social photography (Avni, 2015;Jungselius, 2019;Weilenmann et al, 2013). Social photography is one of the most central features of social media interaction and the number of photos shared in social media has exploded during the last decade, with as many as 1,074 photos shared per second on Instagram in 2022.…”