Olga Goriunova

New media idiocy

The article explores the concept of new media idiocy – both a new kind of idiocy and an idiocy performed in new media networks. The paper argues that instead of being neglected, idiocy needs to be appreciated if we are to enquire into the current forms of techno-human subjectification. Idiocy, following Deleuze, is interpreted as distinct from stupidity (a base mode of thinking); it is a mode of living that explores the true through the false. In new media, idiocy acquires a performative character; it is crafted, practiced and re-enacted collectively. Many forms of aesthetic expression, and especially those produced and circulated through social networks, such as memes and viral videos, have such performance of idiocy at their core. Moreover, it is through such expressive creation and performance of the idiot that the new forms of subjectification take place. Network culture’s allowance for participatory creativity enables new media idiocy to establish new forms of visibility and availability in relation to digital networks. The process of becoming an individual or the formulation of political discontent are dynamically expressed and documented online as they happen. Such order of visibility problematizes the processes of subjectification and the emergence of the cultural as well as the political on the Internet. The article uses YouTube videos and subcultures of webpage production as its case studies.

Chatting through pictures? A classification of images tweeted in one week in the UK and USA

Twitter is used by a substantial minority of the populations of many countries to share short messages, sometimes including images. Nevertheless, despite some research into specific images, such as selfies, and a few news stories about specific tweeted photographs, little is known about the types of images that are routinely shared. In response, this article reports a content analysis of random samples of 800 images tweeted from the UK or USA during a week at the end of 2014. Although most images were photographs, a substantial minority were hybrid or layered image forms: phone screenshots, collages, captioned pictures, and pictures of text messages. About half were primarily of one or more people, including 10% that were selfies, but a wide variety of other things were also pictured. Some of the images were for advertising or to share a joke but in most cases the purpose of the tweet seemed to be to share the minutiae of daily lives, performing the function of chat or gossip, sometimes in innovative ways.