What Does a Photo Mean to You?

Thesis/Question:

Do people really understand the meaning of a photo?

How has social media enabled our ability to understand the meaning of a photo more?

Abstract:

Thinking about the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” can lead the mind to try and understand what the story behind a photo is. For this project I plan to research what a photo means to people who use social media. I want to try and push their understanding of what a photo means. I want to try and get them to think more about what is going on in a photo and why they only post certain photos to their social media sties.

Thinking about the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” I want to try and create an app that allows social media users to take a photo from their site and create a story from it. The idea behind this is to see if a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Project Description:

In today’s society people most often take photos to post them on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. They want to share what is going on in their lives with their family and friends. They often only share photos that show the good parts of their life, which leaves an unrealistic view of what is really happening in their life. I think that this project is related to New Media because I want to get students to stop and think about what a photo means.

Thinking about the growth in photography over the years and how much it is used in social media today is also important. Today with social media we can gain more information about a photo posted through the comments connected to the photo. For example on Facebook a photo of a group of friends can have different comments written underneath to give context to what is happening. Like the location, what they were doing, who is in the photo, etc. This information allows someone to have more understanding of the photo and the meaning behind it.

To carry this project out I need to really look into what a person takes a photo to mean. This will involve asking my peers questions about why they take photos, what photos do they post to social media, and what is their thought process behind posting the photos they do. For a possible installation I can connect students to the idea of understanding a photo more through social media. For example, I can take a photo from Facebook with comments underneath that help to give understanding to what is going on.

Target Audience: People who use social media.

Categories: Proposal