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Our Platforms, Ourselves
Sep. 7th, 2015 10:51 pmI've blogged before about how fandom keeps trying to police one another by invoking etiquette when too often that etiquette is shaped over time by ever changing technology and cultures.here, here and here. The short version: We do not use technology, technology uses us.)
I came across today a comment that spoke to my earlier points. It was responding to the ongoing discussion as to why fans today feel they can blog/reblog content without permission or context.
"I think generations and etiquette have much less to do with it than the technology itself. Tumblr, just like DW or any other social media platform, actively shapes what kind of activity they want to occur by the features they offer and those they neglect.
DW, or LJ before it, presents you first and foremost with a large text box. If you were to find a zine picture you really loved, even if it did not occur to you to ask for permission to post it first, you would probably talk about how you found it, wonder who the author was and if they had a local internet presence, etc. Probably you would put the picture behind a cut (also a habit shaped by technology - slow connections and breaking layouts). Conversation would then proceed within the comments of that entry, and the whole thing would stay relatively secluded - this, IMO, naturally feels much more respectful of the artist, no matter whether the person posting thought anything through beforehand.
On Tumblr, you have a photo post, which will always always show the picture first, and any explanation of what this is and why you are talking about it second. This picture will then be shown to wild strangers via the tagging system, and they can appropriate it, and even remove the last shreds of context by removing the "caption" (just note the name of what all that fannish interaction has now become!), with a single click of the reblog button. Any kind of discussion also necessitates appropriation: you cannot comment on anything without first copying it to your own post! With this kind of architecture, even the same person, with the same original intention, produces wildly different results..."
I came across today a comment that spoke to my earlier points. It was responding to the ongoing discussion as to why fans today feel they can blog/reblog content without permission or context.
"I think generations and etiquette have much less to do with it than the technology itself. Tumblr, just like DW or any other social media platform, actively shapes what kind of activity they want to occur by the features they offer and those they neglect.
DW, or LJ before it, presents you first and foremost with a large text box. If you were to find a zine picture you really loved, even if it did not occur to you to ask for permission to post it first, you would probably talk about how you found it, wonder who the author was and if they had a local internet presence, etc. Probably you would put the picture behind a cut (also a habit shaped by technology - slow connections and breaking layouts). Conversation would then proceed within the comments of that entry, and the whole thing would stay relatively secluded - this, IMO, naturally feels much more respectful of the artist, no matter whether the person posting thought anything through beforehand.
On Tumblr, you have a photo post, which will always always show the picture first, and any explanation of what this is and why you are talking about it second. This picture will then be shown to wild strangers via the tagging system, and they can appropriate it, and even remove the last shreds of context by removing the "caption" (just note the name of what all that fannish interaction has now become!), with a single click of the reblog button. Any kind of discussion also necessitates appropriation: you cannot comment on anything without first copying it to your own post! With this kind of architecture, even the same person, with the same original intention, produces wildly different results..."