The Discourse of Cutting: A Study of Visual Representation of Self-Injury on the Internet
http://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/10818/sternudd_the_discourse_of_cutting.pdf?sequence=1
This was a very interesting article to read, it expressed how the images were shared online and how these were effecting how we understood self harm. It talked about how images were banned online, and people were being stopped for posting self harm images. I think this was something interesting that I could look into.
It also talked about how the image was used to contextualise the truth behind the social issue but this wasn’t the factual statement for it. It expressed how everyone had been through something, whether the pain was self inflicted or not, so would these images help to gain truth and understanding for the topic. The use of internet was too broad to help define the social issues.
Picturesque Wounds: A Multimodal Analysis of Self-Injury Photographs on Flickr
http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/rt/printerFriendly/1935/3546
Within this paper, I noticed that it was expressed that social media platforms were being used more often to visually create a personal representation of themselves, especially within self-harmers. Within the paper is was said that there was many works on the text based structure on self harm but never on visual aspects such as photographs and videos. The text method of looking into self harm was expressed to create meaning whereas images did not. However pictures are said to speak for themselves but not all images can be correctly represented without context and text along with the image. By using these photo-sharing methods, you are self-expressing what you think or feel. If the images had text it would allow the viewer to read into the image more, which helps us to place some context.
The interesting part for me within this paper was how it expressed the different ways in which we can photograph. It was said that there were 3 ways.
- First person – where they take the photograph as if it were through their eyes and how they see it.
- Second person perspective – how someone would photograph you from the other way.
- In the mirror – where you use your reflection to see what you are looking at.
All the photographs taken here are within this first person category so they are only showing the viewer what they want for them to see. Making the viewer look at them how they see themselves.
People Who Self Harm Will Do So Anyway: ‘A Report On The Role Of Social Media In Self-Harming’
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/29/self-harm-social-media-report_n_4687261.html
This was a very interesting article about how social media platforms are being used as diary entries to help express people’s opinions and talk about their lives. However, people are beginning to think that what people post online is affecting those who read them and enables people to start self harming. They argue whether social media is to blame with the rise of self harming within teens because of the internet usage of teenagers in the 21st century.
Public Disorders: Self Harm in Social Media Communities
http://bucultureshock.com/public-disorders-self-harm-in-social-media-communities/
Article about self harm:
This article explores how the internet may play a role in encouraging people to self harm by what they are experiencing online, whether it be through the photographs or the cyberbullying that they are experiencing through these social platforms. It is apparent that it is worrying parents that what their children are witnessing online is encouraging them to see self harm as a normal thing to do. However, not all uses of the internet were negative, it was expressed that a few individuals used these negative social issues raised online to help themselves to look for communities to guide them through their difficult times. I do feel that this article is hitting my main points of interest for what I’d like to say, I just need to figure out how to apply this to the photographs that I have sourced.
It was also brought to my attention that certain people that may be susceptible to to self harm may see these images as damaging and give the wrong idea.
Social Media:
http://blog.instagram.com/post/21454597658/instagrams-new-guidelines-against-self-harm
I found this interesting whilst doing my research because it seems that self harm has been acknowledged to have a negative response online. This is only about Instagram but whilst collecting my research from Tumblr it also presented itself to me that Tumblr had changed their policies to help stop people looking and posting certain things online.
Instagram changed their terms and conditions so that people couldn’t openly express themselves how they chose, which meant they were being conditioned to how society thinks they should be. It was expressed that any photographs that displayed anything to do with self harm, eating disorders or any type of mental health issue was to be withdrawn from the site. I feel that this in itself stop these issues being heard or even dealt with. But on the other hand, it also stops users from participating in the act of becoming mentally ill.
Online Identity Construction
This video was particularly interesting in how it explained what it meant to identify someone through their online profile. You could gain information quickly by scrolling through and seeing what they had posted or written about.
It was clear to me that online profiles play a big part in online identity. A part of the powerpoint said that representation that was authentic didn’t always mean it was true. Which could be said for the self harm images. Self harming is just a small factor into someone’s life and how they are.
The Real and Simulation According to Jean Baudrillard (in “Simulacra and Simulation”)
http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-real-and-simulation-according-to.html
It was clear that from this we can sometimes decipher what is real and what is not. Jean Baudrillard uses the term ‘simulacrum’ this means the representation of someone or something. This idea of online identity is fake, so we cannot gain any meaning or truth behind what we are viewing online.
I found this article to be quite challenging to get my head around Baudrillard’s theory. Even though it holds some significance to my work I don’t feel that it would be a big part in my ongoing research.
Bibliography
healthtalk.org (no date) Influence of the internet and social media. Available at: http://www.healthtalk.org/peoples-experiences/mental-health/self-harm-parents-experiences/influence-internet-and-social-media (Accessed: 10 November 2014).
Instagram (no date) Instagram’s New Guidelines Against Self-Harm Images & Accounts. Available at: http://blog.instagram.com/post/21454597658/instagrams-new-guidelines-against-self-harm (Accessed: 15 November 2014).
avisteltzer (2013) online identity construction, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRK1aOmMr7g (Accessed: 20 November 2014).
the cultural reader: The Real and Simulation According to Jean Baudrillard (in ‘Simulacra and Simulation’) (no date). Available at: http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-real-and-simulation-according-to.html (Accessed: 2 January 2015).
Kerrie Caine 