Social Media & Participatory Culture

More and more, social media is enabling users to participate in creating and posting on its mediums. In many instances, these apps and sites are not used just for ‘viewing’, but instead collaborating, expressing, and sharing ideas with others. This creates a participatory culture, or as Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison (2009) define it in their paper, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, “a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices,” as well as, “one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another” (p. 3). This means that social media is allowing users to become ‘producers’ of media, rather than just ‘consumers’. Users have the freedom to make their own content regarding their interests, and they can post this for others to view and interact with. Producing media ultimately means that users of social media are creating original content, and therefore, they are an active member of the culture.

As an avid user of multiple different social media platforms, it is clear to me that this participatory culture is present in all of them. For example, the main social media site that I use is Instagram. Instagram is an app where you can post photos and videos (along with captions) and you can view the photos and videos of your ‘friends’ that you follow. This platform shows a participatory culture for a few reasons. To start, by posting your own photos, you are a producer of media rather than simply a consumer. Your photos and videos are original content, and this content allows you to be creative and express yourself. Also, as Hinton and Hjorth (2013) explain in Understanding Social Media, “creating content not only involves creativity but also time, emotion and various forms of capital (social, cultural and sometimes economic),” showing that participating on social media sites can lead to increased social connections besides the ability to express yourself (p. 60). These authors explain that sometimes content is created simply to provide to others for entertainment (like YouTube videos for example), but it is also used to build social capital through conversations or other interactions on sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and etc. Henry Jenkins also touches on this in his Ted Talk. He explained 5 factors of participatory culture (like in the paper), which included the point of having, “strong support for sharing creations with others,” (Jenkins, 2010). When people believe that they have the support of others around them on social media sites, they will be more inclined to express themselves and create content to share. I believe this because it is true for me! When I know that I have friends or family members who will engage with the media I post, I am definitely more inclined to share that post and participate on the site. This is true for me not only on Instagram, but on Facebook, Twitter, and even Snapchat. Overall, being a producer of media and having a sense of support for sharing this media appear to be two large factors in participatory culture.

Of course, this is true during regular times. However, we are definitely in an uncharted territory right now — COVID-19. Due to this illness sweeping across the globe, we are all facing a strange time being forced to stay at home and away from so many parts of our regular life. My experience, for instance, includes that I no longer live on campus, I no longer attend classes in-person (hello, Zoom), my work in a school has been transferred to be done at home, and my work as a dance teacher has shifted to Facebook Live posts and Zoom conferences. Essentially, my world has shifted to being online. While social sites do have a participatory culture as previously explained, this shift has also left me feeling extremely isolated. Sure, I can create posts and talk with others in the comments section, but I am no longer getting in-person face-to-face contact as I used to. Also, yes, I have been using Zoom for a class and for work, but this is nowhere near the same. It makes me feel a bit better to actually see others and be able to talk to them, but this media does not replace actually being with others in person. However, I am trying to persevere and I am staying as connected as possible right now. For example, I stated that I have been teaching dance classes via Facebook Live. With Live, I cannot see my students, but they can see me and follow along while I teach. I communicate with them through the comments section and also through the photos and videos they post once our session is over. This has been helpful because I am still able to stay connected with my dancers, and even though it is much different, we are all working together to participate and keep a small sense of normalcy. My participation on regular sites (Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc) has not really changed, other than the fact that I am simply ON the sites more. I haven’t posted that much more (maybe a few extra snapchats, or comments on other peoples’ posts) but I definitely feel that I have been on the apps just seeing what other people are doing. This doesn’t necessarily fit under ‘participatory culture’ I described (being a producer of content), but I thought it was important to note that isolation has led to an increased screen time in my experience.

To end this post, I believe the thing that inspires/motivates me to participate in online communities the most is the sense of support and social connection that I can get from them. When I feel that others care about my content and they engage with it (through comments or even just likes), it makes me want to participate more. Especially in this time of great isolation, participating on social media sites has given me a bit of the normalcy I used to have, and it allows me to connect with others — even if it is not the most ideal way to do so. The “two-way” street of social media helps to give me an outlet to share my ideas and express myself, while also being able to engage with the audience that I post to (Hinton & Hjorth, 2013, p. 57). Overall, being able to interact with a community of people online is why I fit into the ‘participatory culture’, and I am especially thankful for it now in this time of crisis and isolation.