Reading Social Media

Reading Social Media 

Social media texts can include pictures, video, or words, and sometimes a mixture of all three. This genre is fairly new and is used millions of times a day by everyday people. While it may seem strange to analyze the social media posts of people who perhaps do not consider themselves artists, learning to see patterns and discern new ideas about social media posts can help to draw conclusions about the person posting them, or at least determine the image they are trying to portray. 

What kind of image/text is present? 

Social media posts can be both incredibly simple and very nuanced. How often do you see posts by your friends and family with simple photo updates and a caption, updating the world on how their life is going? At least every day, if you are active on social media. But social media feeds are also beset with ads, news updates, videos or photos meant to draw a laugh. Discerning what type of media is present is the best way to determine what the poster is trying to convey.  

Where does the poster want you to focus your attention? 

A picture in front of a mountain is different from posting a picture of the mountain itself. With just the mountain, the viewer clearly wants your attention drawn to the scenery. However is there is someone in the photo, the poster would prefer you focus on the person standing in front of the mountain rather than the mountain itself. We can learn even more from this photo if the poster has taken pains to add filters, or has taken efforts to dress nicely and do their hair. This tells us that the poster would like everyone to see how they look as well as the beautiful sight behind them, perhaps giving the impression that they live an adventurous or exciting life. Whether conscious or unconscious, posters always hope that people will see an image or read a piece of text and discern something about their lives. Lots of memes might mean they want others to think they are funny. A political statement means they want people to know where they stand. Even advertisements on social media want you to have a certain impression of the product they are trying to sell. 

What can you gauge about the person/product? 

Looking at what someone posts on their social media can tell you much about the image a person wants to convey to the world. A woman promoting a startup business, talking about her recent weight loss, or sharing pictures of a friend in a happy birthday message wants you to know something about her. People present not only who they think they are, but also who they want the world to view them as. Looking at someone’s social media posts can tell you what that image is they choose to project. However, you can also gather other information based on what a person chooses to post, other than the image they hope to portray to the world. Someone who posts a lot about how they look might be considered vain or insecure. Someone who posts a joke at another person’s expense can be accidentally seen as malicious. No matter what is presented to the world, people will always draw their own conclusions about that person, just as they would a piece of art.