Selfies| Selfies and Photo Messaging as Visual Conversation: Reports from the United States, United Kingdom and China
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Though mindful of how media often equates selfie production with narcissistic "me generation" behavior, we are interested in exploring the extent to which selfies enable new modalities of visual conversation among those who exchange them.Approaching the topic from our respective backgroundsone of us is a communication scholar and one an anthropologist-we were particularly interested in the degree to which selfie exchange echoes Richard Harper's descriptions of mobile and online texting and other conversation forms.In particular, in his book Texture (Harper, 2010) and in other work, he argues that these forms are not calculated processes or strategic games but rather authentic expressions of the true self.For example, he writes, People do not text to each other because they are thinking about how to keep the balance in the equation of giving and receiving; no, they do these things mainly without thinking.It comes naturally, or more accurately, it comes from the heart (Harper, 2003, p. 215).However, as we believe our data will show, at least in terms of the visual forms of virtual interaction, there is great deal of calculation that takes place.This argument is an extension of Katz's thesis of perpetual contact (Katz & Aakhus, 2002), which was made in the domain of texting-based communication but here is applied here to visual communication.
Authors: James E. Katz, Elizabeth Crocker
Institution: Boston University
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1918468814