XClose

Why We Post

Home

SOCIAL MEDIA THROUGH THE EYES OF THE WORLD

Menu

We used to just talk, now we talk photos

Social media has shifted human communication towards the visual at the expense of text and voice. Now a photo can become the core of our conversation.

7-discovery-new

Brazil

In this film, taken from our e-learning course, Juliano Spyer compares our Brazilian and Chilean fieldsites. He shows how understanding people's aspirations helps to explain new visual genres of posting.

Story

Poverty and mockery

 

 

Trinidad

In Trinidad, as in Brazil, most posts on social media are visual in nature, tending to attract more `likes' than textual posts. There is also considerable emphasis on looking good, as seen in this film. 

 

 

India

Thanks to the emphasis on visual content, in our Indian fieldsite people who are completely illiterate are able to use social media. 

Story

Overcoming illiteracy

7-india-story-new

South China

Although factory workers are literate, they may lack confidence as a result of limited schooling so that images are almost as important as text in communication.

Story

Expressing yourself with images

7-china-story-new

Turkey

Images can give online communication the same sense of proximity and intensity as face-to-face communication, as we found in Turkey with families who are physically separated. 

Story

The intensity of family relations

7-turkey-story