Contemporary society has been described as the Network society (Castells 1996), definined by the presence of multiple networks in which informations flow. Moreover the multiplication of screens surrounding individuals and their ultimate evolution the smartphone imply that (a) the individual live in a state of perpetual connection which is a possibility given by these wearable communication technologies (Katz e Aakus 2002); (b) these technologies not only are taken for granted (Ling 2012) but they are also used by a growing number of users to access the Internet, which means that (c) these users adopt smartphones on daily basis to enter the space of flows, organizing and experimenting their life through/in it. This lead to another consideration: the online/offline distinction cannot longer persist when thinking about contemporary experience of the world, in the multiconnected life of millions of individuals. Starting from this point it is possibile to describe society as a “mobile network society” (Castells 2007), where a significant role is also played by the many Social Network Sites (SNs) in which networks are articulated and displayed, as well as the traces that users leave in these spaces of the Net. Those traces are especially evident in the online profiles, studied by several communications and media scholars and observed under the lens of self-presentation strategies (Papacharissi 2011). In this dissertation online profiles are understood as mediatized self narratives (Lundby 2008) by which individuals organize experiences ordering memories, with the aim to tell stories about themselves: explaining themselves to the others and interpreting the world surrounding them by storytelling’s sense-making function. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate in which ways these mediatized personal narratives relate to the space of flows and the answer were persued by an online ethnographic research and by in-depth interviews in Tumblr, a micro-blogging platform. Observing the field the practice of sharing screenshots of private conversations emerged so it has been chosen as meaningful example both of organizing memories in the space of flows and as production of a peculiar UGC which has been defined as digital fragment of self narrative. Screenshot practice articulates in two moments: the first regarding production and the second regarding the sharing. This practice underlines that these fragments are digital actualizations of moments that could be forgot in the continuos production of informations inside the flow of the conversation. Users save from them from the stream of contents, in order to both remember a private and significant event and to share this moment with others partecipating to the hashtag #messaggi (messages in italian). The findings of the work are that the online practice provides sense following two directions: one vertical, represented by user’s tumblog in which every digital fragment has to be understood by its role in the serie of fragments posted and shared by the user to narrate his autobiographic narrative; and one horizontal, represented by the series of screenshot posted and shared by several users partecipating to the practice.
Frammentazione e ricomposizione del virtuale in mobilità: la pratica degli screenshot
ZUROVAC, ELISABETTA
2016
Abstract
Contemporary society has been described as the Network society (Castells 1996), definined by the presence of multiple networks in which informations flow. Moreover the multiplication of screens surrounding individuals and their ultimate evolution the smartphone imply that (a) the individual live in a state of perpetual connection which is a possibility given by these wearable communication technologies (Katz e Aakus 2002); (b) these technologies not only are taken for granted (Ling 2012) but they are also used by a growing number of users to access the Internet, which means that (c) these users adopt smartphones on daily basis to enter the space of flows, organizing and experimenting their life through/in it. This lead to another consideration: the online/offline distinction cannot longer persist when thinking about contemporary experience of the world, in the multiconnected life of millions of individuals. Starting from this point it is possibile to describe society as a “mobile network society” (Castells 2007), where a significant role is also played by the many Social Network Sites (SNs) in which networks are articulated and displayed, as well as the traces that users leave in these spaces of the Net. Those traces are especially evident in the online profiles, studied by several communications and media scholars and observed under the lens of self-presentation strategies (Papacharissi 2011). In this dissertation online profiles are understood as mediatized self narratives (Lundby 2008) by which individuals organize experiences ordering memories, with the aim to tell stories about themselves: explaining themselves to the others and interpreting the world surrounding them by storytelling’s sense-making function. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate in which ways these mediatized personal narratives relate to the space of flows and the answer were persued by an online ethnographic research and by in-depth interviews in Tumblr, a micro-blogging platform. Observing the field the practice of sharing screenshots of private conversations emerged so it has been chosen as meaningful example both of organizing memories in the space of flows and as production of a peculiar UGC which has been defined as digital fragment of self narrative. Screenshot practice articulates in two moments: the first regarding production and the second regarding the sharing. This practice underlines that these fragments are digital actualizations of moments that could be forgot in the continuos production of informations inside the flow of the conversation. Users save from them from the stream of contents, in order to both remember a private and significant event and to share this moment with others partecipating to the hashtag #messaggi (messages in italian). The findings of the work are that the online practice provides sense following two directions: one vertical, represented by user’s tumblog in which every digital fragment has to be understood by its role in the serie of fragments posted and shared by the user to narrate his autobiographic narrative; and one horizontal, represented by the series of screenshot posted and shared by several users partecipating to the practice.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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