Chapters 2 & 3 of Jill Walker Rettberg’s Seeing Ourselves Through Technology

     I really enjoyed reading about "Filtered Reality" since it's something I had never really thought of before. I don't ever apply filters to anything because I always view it as cheesy and an attempt to be artsy, but I am guilty of taking multiple pictures because I wasn't happy with how the first one (or six) turned out. Whenever someone complains about a picture of themselves (driver's license, school id, etc.) I always say, "But it's a picture of you. If it looks bad, well..."

     I work with a woman who also sells a brand of magic cream (which I shall not name) that rejuvenates the skin and takes years off your face. Allegedly. She posts before and after pictures to her social media accounts all the time and I can't help but compare her to a snake oil salesman. The conditions and lighting are never the same for either picture, so it is fairly obvious to the naked eye that there is some camera trickery at play. If the before picture is trying to highlight crow's feet, you can tell by the shape of the cheek that the person is smiling. But in the after shot, the subject is stone faced. This is a clear indication of someone filtering out information for her own benefit.

     In terms of photo albums only consisting of the good times, I have to say that depends on the person. My wife has been a shutterbug since high school. For each year since we've been married, she has created a photo album using Picaboo or Snapfish. When we had kids, she started creating them for each child, every year. That means we have three yearbooks (plus any special occasion books she decides to make) each year, each consisting of close to 100 pages of photos and text. She's insane.

     But she also captures all the little moments in our lives. Part of that is recording the ugly parts. The trials we've been through. We don't have the puked on onesies discussed in the chapter, but we do have tantrums and boo-boos. For us, it's fun to look back on those moments and appreciate how they've contributed to us becoming who we are. Below is one of our favorites from a year ago. We call it "Dueling Timeouts".

Note the dog longing for quieter days.

     The chapter entitled "Serial Selfies" blew my mind. The organization and dedication it took for these people to take pictures of themselves on such a schedule is beyond my ability. I realize that most people take a number of selfies each day, that's not what is impressive. What is astounding is how the artists in the chapter did it for a purpose beyond "Look what I'm wearing."

     Tehching Hsieh's year-long piece was beyond ridiculous. To take a photo every hour for an entire year requires dedication and discipline, along with a little bit of crazy mixed in. Just the interruption to the sleeping pattern alone. It reminded me a bit of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer decided he was going to take little naps throughout the day, rather than sleep all night. 

     If you had to take a selfie every hour with your cell phone, that's one thing. This guy had a time card he had to punch and a uniform he had to wear. You have to plan everything in your life around 50-55 minute chunks.

     I watched a video on Youtube about his project. I was a little upset to find out that there are about 150 pictures missing. Some are due to mechanical error, some user error. I felt sorry that he might view it as a failure not to record every hour. But with 8,760 hours in a year, he only missed about 2% of the pictures. I think a 98% success rate for such a monumental feat is impressive.

     I'll end this selfie segment with one of me that embarrasses my wife. For some unknown reason I realized just how practical a fanny pack can be and would not stop in my quest to find one. Since we don't live in the early 90's anymore, they're pretty hard to come by. My wife was able to get one for me (in an attempt to get me to shut up about the stupid thing). This is the result.

Not only is the fanny pack itself out of the 90's, but the color scheme is as well.