{"id":25636,"date":"2015-11-04T10:35:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T18:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=25636"},"modified":"2015-11-10T10:40:20","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T18:40:20","slug":"social-media-4-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/social-media-4-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media 4.0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paris,
Paris, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social media\u00e2\u20ac\u009d game for as long as I can remember.\u00c2\u00a0Let me tell you a story:<\/p>\n

I just turned 21 years old, and I got 100+ \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy birthday\u00e2\u20ac\u009d messages on Facebook. No phone calls. Two text messages (one from Cindy and one from my mom). No presents. No hugs in real life. I felt sad, shallow, and neglected.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At that moment I became fascinated how social media has changed our social relationships. This led me down a rabbit hole to study the effect of social media on human relationships. With the encouragement of Cindy, I taught a course at UCLA (while I was an undergraduate) titled: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sociology of Facebook and Social Networks<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You can download the syllabus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Social media and photography<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I started photography, I just shot for myself. I had fun with my little Canon point-and-shoot. I took photos of my friends, family, and random stuff I encountered.<\/p>\n

I then somehow stumbled upon all these great photographers online, and was blown away. Their image quality was so much better than what my little point-and-shoot could produce.<\/p>\n

I soon learned they used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153DSLR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and 50mm f\/1.8 lenses (and shot everything at f\/1.8 to get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bokeh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). This also led me down a rabbit hole of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At the time I started to become more active on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social media\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (before the days of Instagram) by creating my own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photo blog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and by signing up for Flickr and the Fred Miranda Black and White forum. There I was able to build a community of like-minded individuals, improve my photography, which helped me grow as a photographer.<\/p>\n

However once Twitter came around, and social media really started to take off, I wanted to become more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153famous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I had no idea what I was doing.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, the goal was to get as many followers as humanly possible. Maximum external validation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I did all the shady stuff; I followed random people (hoping they would follow back). I would favorite\/comment\/like other peoples\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 photos (hoping they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d reciprocate) and it was the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153circle jerk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of social media (if you scratch my back, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll scratch yours).<\/p>\n

Needless to say; this led me down a hole of dissatisfaction. I was like a crack fiend, addicted to comments, pageviews, favorites, likes, and all these other bullshit forms of social media validation. I would refresh my photos every hour (hoping I got some new notification). Even when I had a full-time job, I would check Facebook (probably at least 200 times a day), hoping that I would get some new love.<\/p>\n

My dream was to become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social media famous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I wanted to be #1 on Google. I wanted to become known by everybody out there, and I wanted to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153respected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I wanted to have photography books published of my work, I wanted to have solo exhibitions, and I wanted to travel the world and do what I loved.<\/p>\n

My goal in life was to get over 100+ favorites on a single photo on Flickr. Once I reached that goal, it turned into 200 favorites, then 300. Then 500. Then 1,000. Now I look at the guy on Instagram with 200,000+ \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I feel like a loser by comparison.<\/p>\n

Social Media 4.0<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I want to propose a new type of social media: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Social Media 4.0<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The concept is this: rather than keeping in touch with random strangers on the web and trying to get lots of followers, likes, comments, etc\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the point is to keep in touch with close friends, colleagues, loved ones, and family<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I recently did a social media purge; I unfollowed everyone on Instagram, installed the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Facebook News Feed Eradicator<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Google Chrome, and now I am trying to keep my social media feed tightly curated with close friends and colleagues I care about.<\/p>\n

With Twitter, I installed a Chrome plugin to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mass unfollow<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d everyone; and now I am starting off from scratch. I only want to follow people who inspire me (and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even need to be photography-related).<\/p>\n

1:1 Interactions<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think one of the reasons why Snapchat has really taken off is because it is much more personal. You send photos and videos to individuals; rather than sending it to the mass of strangers online.<\/p>\n

This feels more personal, more intimate. You can share more random shit, without feeling the need to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I also do a lot of 1:1 chatting with my friend Josh White<\/a> and Neil Ta<\/a>, via KakaoMessenger (Korean online messaginga pp) as well as What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s App.<\/p>\n

Personally, my entire family (and Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family) uses KakaoMessenger, and we send each other random photos, messages, and videos to keep each other updated with our lives. I rarely use Facebook anymore.<\/p>\n

This all feels so much more personal and meaningful. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care about following all my friends online. I just want to stay in touch with the people who really matter to me, in my personal life.<\/p>\n

The Dunbar Number<\/h2>\n
\"Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In sociology, there is something called the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dunbar Number<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the concept is that human beings evolved in tribes of 50-150 people. Apparently we cannot keep in touch with more than 150 people.<\/p>\n

I read something interesting a while back; that a guy kept his Facebook friends list to 150 friends. And when he wanted to add another \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friend,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he had to remove one \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friend.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Can we really keep in touch with over 150 people? Most of us (msyelf included) follow thousands; that is simply not humanly possible.<\/p>\n

The secret then? We have to edit down the number of people we follow and stay in touch with.<\/p>\n

You are the Average of the 5 Closest People To You<\/h2>\n

Probably one of the best quotes I learned from sociology:<\/p>\n

\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are the average of the 5 closest people to you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So who are those people closest to you? At the moment here is my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inner-circle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for my photography:<\/p>\n