Tag Archives: Instagram

Discussion Post 9

Posted on March 20, 2013 by | Comments Off on Discussion Post 9

@stansberry_dtcv

Social Media, have it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or another undoubtedly plays a role in the majority of people’s lives today. While not every person uses these websites and some may use them far more than others, the numbers have been and are increasing and people are spending more time than ever keeping up their online identity and reputation. Personally I’ve seen social media change people in a good and bad ways. Some who were naturally shy I’ve seen be able to open up and make more friends by utilizing Facebook, while others seem to have retreated towards the contrary, where you only see them online and never in person. Also, it’s given way to a new form of popularity. I’ve heard even such ridiculous claims from friends about people they see in person who they’ve never met calling them Twitter or Facebook “famous” because of the amount of likes, favorites, or retweets they get on such medias. As described in “Hello Avatar”, “an avatar is computer-generated figured controlled by a person via a computer”. Beth Coleman argues to expand the definition to include more than just characters generated in games like second life, but to also mean the user behind an IM or SMS. I would say this ‘avi’ that we choose on such social networks, even if it is a real picture of yourself, is often chosen so specifically or edited and filtered to portray who we would like to be, rather than who we naturally are. Fact is, many enjoy a virtual world just as much or more than the real world, and that will continue to change and shape our society as these technologies progress.

Comments Off on Discussion Post 9

Posted in Student Blogs

Tagged , , , , , ,

Week 1 Blog Response

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | Comments Off on Week 1 Blog Response

@JaredAbrahamWSU

 

My name is  Jared Abraham. I am a DTC major and am in my first semester at Washington State University Vancouver.

Tablets and smartphones have revolutionized the way we we interact with our  computers, our televisions, and our friends. As well as, giving us instant access to people around the world in an instant. One of the many ways that we are able to  do this is  through applications. Applications, or apps, by using cellular data provided by various phone companies like Sprint and Verizon, have the ability to connect someone from Washington to someone in Rome in a matter of seconds. For instance, Facebook has given everyone who chooses to use it, a window into peoples lives through their status updates. Although Facebook started out as a website only, with the quick rise in popularity of smart devices the social media company has launched several different apps, ranging from the original Facebook app to the Messenger app. Facebook has also purchased some apps launched by different companies like Instagram.

All of these apps have what Lev Manovich calls the principals of new media (The Language of new media, pg.27). some of these principals can be found in Instagram.  For instance, an example of Manovich’s first principal, Numerical Representation (pg. 27) could be Instagram. Instagram is a photo editing app that you can install on your smart device, using algorithm to remove or add noise to or from a photo(pg. 27). Instagram could also be an example of “Modularity” (pg. 30). An example would be the pixels of an image.

It is exciting to think how far technology has advanced in just the past five years. We can only imagine what new innovations and advances will be made in the next five years.

Comments Off on Week 1 Blog Response

Posted in Student Blogs

Tagged , , , ,

Chris Stansberry New Media

Posted on January 14, 2013 by | Comments Off on Chris Stansberry New Media

Twitter Name: @Stansberry_DTCV

Hi class my name is Christopher Stansberry, I’m in my second semester as a Freshman here at WSUV and I plan on majoring the business major Management and Operations. I graduated from Heritage and did running start at Clark my senior year. I wish everyone the best in this course.

In the book “The Language of New Media” Lev Manovich sets specific guidelines he believes are the outline or definition of new media objects using five key aspects. These factors include the presence of numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability. and transcoding. Broken down, Manovich means all new media can be “composed of digital code” (27), as well as “assembled into larger-scale objects [while] continuing to maintain their separate identities” (30). Also new media has allowed for “human intentionality [to] be removed from the creative process” (32) in addition to the ability to “give rise to many different versions” (36). Since 2001 there have been several new media objects arise that are still subject to Manovich’s definition including the social networking site Instagram. Instagram, mainly used on mobile devices as a application, is a place where people can share pictures often with chosen editing filters taken from there devices for everyone to enjoy in a news feed format that allows users following you the ability to ‘favorite’ or ‘comment’ your pictures. The app is essentially software that has been created by programmers using a interpreting language which can be boiled down to binary code, portraying the new media object Instagram as being numerically represented. Modularity is also shown in this website since the collection of functions and programs combined to create the application can separately be edited to fix bugs, make improvements, or change small things such as the color of the favorite or like buttons. When you upload a picture to Instagram you have the option of editing the photo with a number of options such as preset filters, zooming, cropping, focusing, and even borders. This is an obvious example of automation. Automation is set in place to make it easier for the next user, and the editing features on Instagram make it so anyone can be a photographer. Variability is displayed because the application could exist in infinite forms. The code could be changed so many ways that there is ultimately a never ending possibility of ways the app could appear or be used. According to Manovich, “in new media lingo, to ‘transcode’ something is to translate it into another format” (47). Instagram has computerized photography and made it solely digital. Instead of having photos developed and scanned into a computer for others to enjoy online, you can now take the picture and share it instantly from Instagram, which has created a whole new culture and terminology. When users speak of Instagram you’ll often hear of how many favorites they got on their picture, or how there ‘feed’ is cluttered with pictures of this or that, in addition to terms like “photo map”, “profile pic” or “avi”. Instagram is one of many revolutionary new media objects that continue to shape the definition of new media.

Comments Off on Chris Stansberry New Media

Posted in Student Blogs

Tagged , , ,