I am a self-confessed social media addict fan. Twitter, Facebook, newsgroups, blogs, you name it – I am there. I simply love communicating. While face-to-face communication remains my favourite form of social interaction, I find internet-based communication increasingly handy and fascinating. Never have I been in such close contact with my friends and family who live all over the world. One status update reaches all, in a matter of seconds. We can chat, we can exchange links and we can look at photos. The old prejudice that internet communication is anonymous and false does not hold true for me. I am genuine – and so are my contacts because most of them are “real” people whom I have actually met in the matrix… ehm… real world.
However, I do admit that my fascination with social media occasionally veers into the obsessive. And certainly ever since I got my swish and fancy iPhone 4 *showsoff*, the addiction need to inform everyone on my contact list about my latest experiences has become virtually impossible to suppress. I am not alone in that, statistics console me. According to a 2010 study by Nielsen Media, Facebook users on average visit the network 19 times each month and spend a total of six hours in the network. (Um, only *six* hours per month? I get that per week…)
Right, you are wondering why I am writing about all this in my photo blog? It is reason enough for me to start looking at the social media phenomenon from a photographic point of view. If people nowadays “live” in the cloud, how does that actually look like? Where do people blog/update/tweet? Which devices to they use? Is social networking a lonely occupation? These are questions I would like to explore (photo)graphically.
Now, don’t worry, 2picsaweek is not going to become a branch of Facebook. But occasionally I will use the blog to document my project “Anti?Social Media“. This post is the first in the open-ended series. And therefore I end this entry with image number 1 entitled “Couch-booking”.
2picsaweek 
Hi Sonja! I think your project's a wonderful idea! I love this photo with the man's feet on the table, ha, ha. I'm definitely pro social media, although you have to watch the addiction dangers and not lose sight of what's closest to you! I think the couple here look very in symc, each in their own little world for a little while but afterwards having lots to communicate to each other, or at least that's what I see in it! Looking forward to following your project!
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I think that's a great project – where people use social media says a lot about how they use it. In the picture above the obviousely he has nothing to hide if he lets her watch him post about his life 🙂
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Thanks for the feedback, Esther and Tanja. Yes, social media is an interesting field. Can't wait to get more “victims” who will let me look into their lives and document how they use social media. Unfortunately social networking still seems to come with a bit of a stigma – “you must be a sad loner if you need the internet to communicate with others”. That is another aspect of social media which I would like to prove wrong with my project.
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Hi Sonja, I thinkj your project is wonderfull. You are a great photographer, keep up the good work. You are also very amusing and creative. Good luck and I will follow you and your work!!! Janna
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Hi Janna – thank you so much for taking the time to read through older posts and commenting. Hope I can keep up the “amusement” ;-). Keep commenting – it drives me on!
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