Vlogs As Autobiographical Works That Facilitate Self Reflexivity
Records of the first video blogs (vlogs) predate YouTube (circa 2004–2006) when people uploaded their vlogs to their self-hosted WordPress sites and other platforms. In fact, back in 2006, Verdi and a few other authors even published a book called “Secrets of Video Blogging,” offering tips for people who like to create their own vlogs (Verdi et al., 2006). Over time, though, as online technologies (and speeds) have advanced, vlogging has only become more widespread. Vlogging has become a popular form of online content as millions of people create and share vlogs on popular platforms such as YouTube. Vlogs often consist of a series of videos in which the vlogger (creator) shares his or her thoughts. We see people vlogging about their lives or even about a specific topic on which they want to share their experiences and give their opinions. There are students who vlog about their study habits and patterns. There are beauty vloggers who talk about beauty tips and share their opinions as they transform. There are various vloggers who have discovered the art of video production to document their lives and talk about topics close to their hearts, be it travel, music, lifestyle, fashion, etc.
While vlogs are often seen as a form of entertainment, they can also serve as autobiographical works that allow vloggers to reflect on their own lives and experiences. In the following sections, we’ll explore how vlogs promote self-reflection by looking at the available literature and analyzing three expat vloggers who post videos on YouTube and share their experiences and opinions about moving to and settling in a new country.
Motivation
I came to Germany on October 17, 2022, to pursue my Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology, Media, and Documentary Practices at the University of Münster, and I felt like I already knew quite a lot about the country: how to shop, buy groceries, where to find the cheapest household and lifestyle items, when to book tickets with Deutsche Bahn to get the best prices, and even which bank to apply to! I’ve got to say that many expat vloggers had a lot to do to get me to Germany and start my new life here without any problems. When I looked at their vlogs documenting their lives in Germany and reflecting on their decisions when they moved there, it was the answer to all my questions.
Vlogs are in many ways similar to traditional diary entries or memoirs in that they allow creators to reflect on their own lives and experiences. However, unlike written diaries or memoirs, vlogs contain a visual component that can help bring the vlogger’s story to life in a more immersive way.
In vlogs, the people behind the camera, also called vloggers, usually report on a variety of topics, from personal challenges and struggles to travel adventures and everyday routines. Some vloggers focus on a specific topic, while others take a more general approach and give an insight into their lives as a whole.
Having been a vlogger myself, posting weekly videos in India, and documenting a part of my life as an independent music composer and the challenges faced by indie musicians, I started reflecting on how I’ve improved over time and the choices I’ve made in my vlogs. From my own experience, I always feel that vlogging has helped me along the way by facilitating self-reflexivity.
Research Questions
Vlogs often provide a distinctive, personal view of the world, giving viewers a glimpse into another person’s life and ideas, regardless of their subject. The ability to record and reflect on one’s own experiences in a public setting makes them an effective tool for self-expression and self-exploration.
In this paper we try to answer these research questions that come to mind when we see more and more vlogs:
1. Why can vlogs be considered autobiographical works that enable self-reflexivity?
2. What motivates vloggers to show their everyday lives, record their experiences, and share these videos on YouTube as vlogs?
3. How does their vlogging journey help them reflect on their life in Germany while they have to cope with some culture shocks?
Living in an Integrated Mediascape
Prof. Michael Wesch, an Anthropologist and Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, has spent more than a decade researching video blogs, YouTube, and YouTubers to better understand their content. In his lecture, “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” he discusses that it should not be just the study of YouTube, but instead the whole mediascape. “My video is an example where I posted it on YouTube, I sent it out on email, it travels then through the blogosphere, it goes through Facebook and Myspace, and Digg and so on, and this is showing that there’s this really interesting, integrated mediascape that we now live in. And at the center of the mediascape is us.” (Wesch 2008)
In the same lecture, Prof. Wesch also talks about how most of the vlogs on YouTube begin with the protagonist talking to the camera, addressing it as “Hey Everybody” or “Hi There, YouTube.” He adds that, as of 2008, almost 5% of the videos on YouTube were addressed to the YouTube community every day. I see that this practice has been in the existence even today among many vloggers thereby building a sense of community and prepping up the informal first-person style storytelling feature of vlogs.
The Autobiographical Elements of Vlogs
A vlog is a form of video that a vlogger periodically posts on video publishing platforms such as YouTube, where the vloggers record themselves with the camera while talking about various topics and even sharing any special experiences they may have had in their lives. When we study vlogs, it is imperative to study about YouTube and understand how the platform’s tagline “Broadcast Yourself” is in itself an argument that clearly shows the site’s ability to enable everyone to share their stories through videos. Over the years, YouTube has gone through controversies, transformations, and changes of ownership, yet its tag has remained. While you see more and more Hollywood films, music videos from major artists, news clips, and all types of professionally produced videos on YouTube, the platform also allows user-produced amateur videos like vlogs to coexist. (Lashley 2013).
Vlogs, which often involve a person documenting their life and thoughts in front of the camera, can be considered autobiographical works, according to Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology at University College London (UCL). Being able to share one’s experiences and viewpoints with an audience allows vloggers to create their narratives. Miller argues in his book “Tales from Facebook” that social media platforms like YouTube, which host many vlogs, have emerged as significant spaces for identity formation and self-expression. Vlogs can thus be viewed as a means of representing yourself and connecting with others (Miller 2011).
There are vlogs where people talk about beauty, travel, life hacks, and even show their van life, among many other topics. And most of these tend to follow a form of autobiographical storytelling. We see that vlogging, although usually produced in various forms, builds its narrative around a central voice — the protagonist — who talks about their journey and experience. The three expat vloggers whose vlogs I have analyzed in the further sections of this paper have a similar first-person approach where they share their life stories and talk about specific instances and experiences they have collected over the years.
For example, Jenna Davis talks about the culture shock she faced in her first year, shares her Canada to Germany story, talks about things she wishes she had known before she gave birth in Germany, etc. We also see Shraddha Parashar talking about her work, salary, savings, etc., in one of her vlogs as she compares her life in India and Germany. She has also vlogged about what items an Indian should pack in their luggage before coming to Germany, which is a sit-down format vlog where the protagonist/vlogger is usually both the author and the performer. Many vloggers frequently use their videos to share their views, emotions, and experiences with large audiences. As a result, vlogs can be viewed as a kind of autobiography in which vloggers tell their audiences a story about their lives and who they are.
So how did vlogs become a popular medium of self-expression and communication on the internet? “Vlogging is a new wave of reflective practice that can be more responsive and in-the-moment as the vlogger authentically expresses one’s self” (Brott and Willis 2021: 02). In their research, they go on to explain that the spontaneity and emotional depictions captured in vlogs present first-person perspectives and can provide the vlogger with opportunities for thoughtful reflection. This use of first-person style and personal narratives are the key elements that give vlogs an autobiographical character. Brott and Willis also mention that vlogs are video snapshots that can be shared with the audience, and they become a time-stamped critical self-reflective journal. Through vlogging, vloggers often speak in a confessional or first-person style, sharing intimate details about their lives and experiences. These can be narratives about their ideas, feelings, and even behaviors, in addition to descriptions of their surroundings and the people around them. Vloggers can convey a distinctive and intimate picture of their lives by sharing their experiences and opinions in this way.
The representation of the vlogger’s identity and experiences is also an important part of vlogs as autobiographies. Whether it’s through their looks, personality, or interests, vloggers often use their videos to present a specific image of themselves to their audience. During my interaction with vlogger Shraddha Parashar, she pointed out that she has even been observing and reflecting on things like how she looks in front of the camera, whether she is looking dull or tired, and what changes can be made to improve the presentation for the next vlog. Achieving a specific aesthetic or atmosphere may require the use of specific props, backdrops, and other visual components. Additionally, vloggers can use their videos to express their beliefs, values, and opinions, further defining who they are and how they present themselves.
Along with the narrative and representation of the vlogger’s identity, the role of the audience and interactivity also make the vlogs autobiographical. Many vloggers interact with their viewers through comments, likes, and other types of feedback that can affect the content and direction of their videos. Vloggers can also respond to specific audience requests, further influencing their self-presentation and the way they communicate their experiences.
1. Creating an identity online and revealing about themselves
Vlogging is a type of autobiography in which vloggers capture their lives with a camera on a daily or weekly basis, according to Ümit Kennedy in her article “Exploring YouTube as a Transformative Tool in the “Power of Makeup!” Movement” (Kennedy 2016). Although the author focuses on beauty vloggers, I have seen this identity formation and self-disclosure practice among many vloggers, regardless of their topics. Vloggers can be characterized by a willingness to present themselves and share their stories with the outside world without concern for how an audience may find their videos (Christian 2009).
According to Michael Wesch in his popular video “Web 2.0… The Machine is Us/ing Us,” Web 2.0 is all about connecting people and allowing them to share, trade, and collaborate (Wesch 2007). And, as a platform that allows users to interact with web pages rather than simply viewing them, YouTube clearly falls under Web 2.0. It has been many years since YouTube was started, but when I browse through the content on the website, I can observe that a major chunk of the content still falls under the “Broadcast Yourself” mentality. (Cashley 2013). While nowadays we can find a lot of commercial production houses publishing content on YouTube, most videos are still produced and distributed by individuals using readily available cameras — most of the time a vlogging camera or even a good smartphone.
Kennedy (2016) further claims that vloggers often use their vlogs as a platform to share their personal stories, experiences, and perspectives with their audience. In this way, vloggers can construct an autobiographical narrative and use their vlogs as a way to document their journey through life. This process can even be seen as a form of self-reflection, as vloggers can reflect on and share their own experiences and emotions with their audience.
2. What motivates vloggers to document their lives and sharing their experiences with the world?
Before understanding what motivates vloggers to document their lives, it might be important to understand the reasons people post on social media in the first place. According to anthropologist Daniel Miller (2016), there are several reasons people post on social media. In the book How the World Changed Social Media, Miller and other authors argue that the reasons for posting on social media are complex and diverse and can be influenced by a range of individual, social, and cultural factors, but they also point to a diversity of purposes including self-expression, connection and community, social comparison, self-presentation, and information sharing. While some people use social media to share personal experiences and thoughts, others use it to connect with friends and family (Miller et al. 2016). It becomes really difficult to discern their motivations for sharing their life stories on YouTube and other social media platforms.
Strangelove (2010) compares YouTube to the “home movie,” a format of videos that have been produced for consumer purposes ever since consumer video cameras became widely popular in the mid-20th century. For Strangelove, YouTube is a site where the ordinary is king and where sharing is paramount. According to him, people often share details of their private lives on YouTube because of a trend towards more intimate and everyday content in the media. In his 2010 publication Watching YouTube, he states: “Across all media and genres, there has been a general drift towards a more direct representation of intimate everyday life. It is as if all forms of media practice are converging on the self and the everyday” (Strangelove 2010: 73). This is especially true for video blogs, which are often created by self-aware individuals who present a specific version of reality to their audience.
3. The role of vlogging in documenting culture shock experiences
Moving and settling in a new country is not an easy task. It takes a lot of patience and knowledge, along with an ongoing effort to understand and process the cultural shocks. I have been following a handful of expat vloggers ever since I made up my mind to pursue my Master’s Degree in Germany, and based on my observations, vlogging seems to play a very important role in documenting and processing the cultural shocks they experience when moving to a new country. These can include disorientation, homesickness, confusion, or difficulty adjusting to new social norms and expectations.
My analysis of the three expat vloggers demonstrates clearly how vlogs can be used to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences with a larger audience (see the analysis section below). This can be especially helpful for people who do not have a strong support network in their new place of residence, as vlogging can provide a sense of connection and community. By narrating their videos and sharing their perspectives, vloggers can reflect on their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of their emotions and reactions. Also, from my discussion with Shraddha Parashar, I can safely say that this reflective process can help vloggers identify patterns, make connections, and find meaning in their experiences, which in turn can facilitate their adaptation to a new culture.
By receiving comments, likes, and other forms of feedback from their audience, vloggers can gain additional perspective and insight into their experiences. This can help vloggers feel more connected and supported while navigating their experiences, and this in turn can help other subscribers and the audience adjust to the new culture.
The use of vlogs as a tool for self-reflexivity and processing culture shock
When you enter the YouTube site, you will see a wide range of videos, including music videos, remix videos, comedy skits, news, TV, and other movie trailers and clips, some of which are original and others that have been copied from offline media. None of these formats, however, are as distinctive to YouTube culture as the phenomenon of one person speaking to the camera and sharing their narrative with the entire globe (Lashley 2013: 42).
Ruby argues that Reflexivity is a crucial part of effective narration (2005/1988). One way vlogs encourage self-reflexivity is through the process of creating and sharing personal content. Unlike more traditional media, which often rely on a narrator or an outside perspective, vlogs are usually presented from the vlogger’s point of view. This allows vloggers to share their own thoughts and experiences unfiltered, giving them a unique and intimate look into their lives.
In addition to their focus on the vlogger’s perspective, vlogs can also be self-reflective, using the camera as a means of self-expression. By filming and sharing their everyday lives with an audience, vloggers can present a version of themselves to the world and shape their image and identity in ways that written forms of self-expression cannot. This can be seen as a form of self-reflection, as vloggers use the camera to explore and understand their own identities and experiences.
In his critically acclaimed video of one of his lectures, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube, Prof. Michael Wesch (2008) discusses how some of the early YouTube stars were vloggers, documenting and reflecting on their lives. According to him, vloggers often use their vlogs to make sense of their own lives and experiences and to find meaning in their journey. “And so there begins to be a lot of reflection about self on YouTube and it’s a great place to study self and identity if you’re into that” (Wesch 2008). By sharing their thoughts and feelings with their audience, vloggers can participate in a process of self-reflection that can help them gain a deeper understanding of their own experiences and emotions.
When comparing vlogs to physical diaries, Michael Strangelove, Professor of Media Studies and Author, describes vlogs as nothing more than blogs that have been recorded as a video and can thus be called video diaries. In the Video Diaries: The Real You in YouTube chapter of his book Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People, Michael further explains that these ‘video diaries’ are often reflexive mirrors for objectifying and observing the self (Strangelove 2010: 64–83).
More specifically, for vlogging, we can see a growing inward shift in the creation of videos where vloggers record aspects of their lives they believe are worth documenting and a new set of production techniques that play off the interactive features of the YouTube platform. In his doctoral dissertation, Mark C. Lashley (2013) mentions “Within a body of literature that is useful for discussing video blogging, documentary theorists have addressed authorship in terms of self- reflexivity, a concept that is certainly helpful in conceptualizing the practice of vloggers.”
Analysis of vlogs published by three expat vloggers in Germany
This study focuses on three expat vloggers — one from Canada, one from India, and one from Guatemala, all three currently living in Germany and the content analysis of their vlogs. Their orchestrated vlogs give us an insight into the culture shock they’re going through in Germany and how they were able to reflect on their journey as an expat in Germany through vlogs.
1. Life in Germany
Jenna, a Canadian, has lived in Germany since 2014 and is currently residing in Düsseldorf. She started vlogging full-time on her YouTube channel, “Life in Germany,” in June 2020. In her vlogs, she discusses her life in Germany and the ups and downs of being an expat there. She began her career as a blogger with the launch of her website, lifeindüsseldorf.com, and at the moment, her vlogs on her YouTube channel are well-received by her audience for her casual manner and for revealing all the culture shocks she encounters as a foreigner in Germany.
Massive Culture Shocks As A Canadian Living In Germany
With over 345K views (as of January 24th, 2023), this is one of Jenna’s most popular videos. She begins the video by explaining how she decided to write down every single wrong step, or “screw-up,” she made along her journey in Germany. Recorded in a sit-down format, Jenna explains how she was trying to edit an early blog post of hers, which she published in 2014, and how interesting it is when she looks back on the post six years later and many of those points are irrelevant to her, but they were so strange to her when she arrived.
In this video, Jenna talks about a few culture shocks she faced over the years, including how she feels people in Germany tend to dress better than people from North America. She also recalls one of the early expat gatherings in Düsseldorf, which she attended in her Lululemon yoga pants and a sweater, only to later find out that the remaining crowd had come in much “classier” attire.
A few minutes into the vlog, she goes on to re-enact her supermarket scenes as she talks about how supermarkets in Germany still overwhelm her after 6 years. She also describes how the fact that all shops are closed on Sundays in Germany came as a huge shock to her but that, through time, she has learned to accept and understand it.
She also discusses her experiences using public toilets in Germany, the sizes of toilet buttons, the enormous size of German square pillows, not sharing the blanket with the spouse, tilting windows, and so on.
Finally Opening Up About my First Year in Germany as an Immigrant
In this recent vlog of Jenna’s, she discusses her first year in Germany. She talks about her long-distance relationship with her then-boyfriend (now husband), who is German. She also introduces a lot of old video footage from those early days in Germany as she shares her experiences of exploring Freiburg with her boyfriend and drinking beer in public for the first time, having bonfires in the middle of the Black Forest, taking weekend train trips to little German villages, climbing castle towers, and hiking through the woods. She mentions that she first came to Germany on a travel visa for 3 months, then got it extended so she could teach English and also run her blog. Again, the vlog cuts into various old video footage as she talks about her experience moving into a shared apartment with her boyfriend, but also two other flatmates.
Jenna also reflects on why she considers herself extremely fortunate to have gradually transitioned from a tourist visa to a freelancer visa rather than beginning to worry about all the bureaucratic details right away. She says, “On the contrary, when you see how naive I was in that first year, it hit me like a ton of bricks when it was time to actually move into our own flat and learn everything from scratch.” She also adds later, “Needless to say, it looks like a lot of trial and error [guys]. That is exactly why I have this channel now; it’s exactly why I started the “Life in Düsseldorf” blog, and that is simply because it was such a challenge for me. I really did not love living in Düsseldorf in the first year, and I am living proof to show you guys that sometimes it just takes really giving it a chance and just buckling down and getting the help you need.”
2. Simple Germany
Simple Germany is a YouTube channel with a series of vlogs by a Guatemalan-German couple named Jen and Yvonne. Just like Jenna Davis, this couple also uses a sit-down style in their videos to share their stories and discuss their life in Germany. As their catchphrase goes, they genuinely share a lot of insights and reflect on a lot of decisions and experiences to help others make their transition into Germany “more smoothly.” As Jen is the expat who moved to Germany and settled over the course of a few years, we will be focusing on a couple of their videos where they are talking about Jen’s experiences in this case study.
How I feel FREE in Germany
Jen and Yvonne discuss how, “generally speaking,” Germany has made Jen feel safer than her home country of Guatemala in this video. Jen begins her vlog by telling a story about being on a public train at 2 a.m. and how it made her feel free. She adds that being alone at night was a big deal for her, and it took some time for her to accept it. In response to Jen’s experiences, Yvonne shares how normal and safe public transportation has always been for her and that she has been taking it alone since she was 10 years old.
Jen shares a few other examples of how she feels safer in Germany, including those involving gun control. Yvonne adds to this by telling a story about Jen, who was afraid to use her phone when the car stopped at a traffic light in Guatemala, fearing that a criminal would mug them at gunpoint. Jen later adds that she can feel safe in Germany even if she does not live in a gated community, which is not the case in her home country. She also discusses how she commutes without a car, is openly gay, is able to consume alcohol in public, and much more. They also talk a bit about the societal portrayal of women and how Jen has been able to freely express herself through her choice of clothing in Germany.
My journey to Germany [The Honest Truth]
This is a through-and-through reflective vlog where Jen talks about her entire journey from Guatemala to Germany as she lists down reasons why she left Guatemala and moved to Germany and got settled legally. She begins the vlog by discussing her childhood and her family’s situation back in Guatemala, and how privileged she is now to stay in Germany and be openly gay and happily married to Yvonne.
While talking about her journey from Guatemala to Germany, she also explains how she first ended up in Hungary working as an English and tourism teacher and shares her experiences of meeting new people in Hungary and grabbing further work opportunities at a call center.
“Now thinking back, I don’t even know how I did it, but I also still had money to travel,” Jen shares as she explains her lifestyle in Europe in her early days. She says that she had to apply for almost 500 jobs before she got a reply from one company in Düsseldorf inviting her to attend an interview. She then talks about how she taught herself to code and did a few freelance projects with her friends back in Guatemala while she worked in Germany full-time for a company.
While talking about her experience finding a shared apartment and living in it, Jen says, “There’s a lot of things that now I know and I wish I would have known there that could have been better.” Overall, in this video, Jen sums up almost a decade of her life and shares the entire journey, which is both self-reflexive and motivational.
3. Shraddha Parashar
Shraddha came from India to Germany to pursue her Master’s degree and is now settled in Germany, working in a corporate role. She vlogs at interesting places as she walks in a park or sometimes with cuts between different locations, unlike Jen and Jenna, who usually vlog from the comfort of their homes. Through her vlogs, Shraddha usually shares her experiences and gives some tips to other Indians who are interested in pursuing education in Germany.
Challenges I faced after arriving in Germany
In this video, Shraddha talks to the camera as she sits in the sun near a river and starts explaining the challenges she faced after coming to Germany. She begins the video with a disclaimer that the challenges faced by everyone are different based on many factors, including limitations, experiences, knowledge of the German language, etc., and that this video is purely based on her experience.
Shraddha mentions how difficult it was that very first day to have food at Mensa, as she had been used to the Indian masalas and spices all her life. She further mentions how she faced challenges due to the language barrier and shares her experiences about finding accommodation. At this point in the video, she also shares a few examples and a couple of interactions she has had with other students.
In the video, Shraddha shares how she had a hard time getting used to living in Germany. She also talks about how difficult it was for her to remember the names of the streets. She recalls going to one of the student housing offices and having to give them her current address, and all she could remember was the word “Straße.” She adds, “It was really embarrassing, but he understood that it has been just two days and it’s a lot to take in.”
She then talks about her shopping experiences in Germany and gives some tips for the viewers. She also says that someone had commented asking her to make a video on how to survive in Germany. And for that, she says in the video, “I hate when someone says surviving in Germany, it’s living in Germany… It’s experiencing in Germany.”
My job, salary and expenses in Germany | Wages in Germany
As I previously stated, Shraddha’s videos are typically shot in a variety of settings, some of which are outdoors and some of which are indoors. In this video, she walks around on a bright sunny day and talks about her new job, salary, savings, taxes, and expenses in Germany. As she shares her story and experiences, she also offers some general advice to the viewers.
Shraddha begins by discussing her job profile. She explains that she is currently a graduate trainee working for a large corporation as part of the graduate trainee program. She then informs the audience about the trainee program and its benefits, explains the salary, and mentions the ballpark figure that everyone can expect if they apply to similar graduate trainee programs after graduating from their universities. She then compares her salary in India to her current salary as a graduate trainee in Germany and talks about how her savings in Germany are significantly greater than her total earnings back in India.
Similarly, in this vlog, she does a lot of back-and-forth comparisons about her work, expenses, and savings, and through all these, she reflects a lot. She discusses taxes in Germany and her cost of living, describing how her cost of living increased from 600 EUR as a student to 1,500 EUR as a working professional. She goes on to say how her work-life balance has improved in Germany and how she has seen people in her social circle wanting to move to Germany from the United States because of the work-life balance, even if the salary is lower.
Conclusion
As we have explored a few pieces of literature on vlogs and YouTube, we understand that the first-person style and personal narratives make vlogs autobiographical. And since they are also considered video diaries, similar to memoirs or personal diaries but in the video format, they become time-stamped self-reflective journals. Also, we have seen how YouTube’s very own tagline, “Broadcast Yourself,” is in itself an argument for this and how it invites people to share their stories with the whole world.
While we talk about the concept of self-reflexivity, it becomes imperative that we do not miss out on discussing Bill Nichols’ “modes of documentary” (1991, 2017), where he claims that documentaries in which the author inserts his or her voice in a direct fashion are far less peculiar to the audience than other forms like cinéma verité. As I look more into this, it makes me think along the lines of Lashley (2013): “What is a video blog, to borrow from Strangelove (2010), if not self-reflexive?” To me, these personal, self-reflexive vlogs on YouTube make sense.
After discussing with Shraddha Parashar, analyzing three vloggers, and also considering my own vlogging experience, I can say that self-reflection can take many different forms, such as sharing personal experiences, discussing struggles and successes, and reflecting on one’s own growth and development. When vloggers engage in dialogue with their viewers and explore common values and beliefs by sharing their thoughts and experiences, this is also a reflective process that helps vloggers and their audience better understand each other and strengthen their connection and sense of community.
Overall, vlogs offer a unique and intimate glimpse into the lives and experiences of their creators, making them an intriguing and engaging form of self-reflective storytelling. As vlogs continue to grow in popularity, it will be interesting to see how this form of content evolves and continues to shape the way we think about self-expression and identity in the digital age.
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I originally submitted this work as part of the first module for my M.A. in Visual Anthropology, Media, and Documentary Practices at the University of Münster, Germany, in February 2023. I would like to extend my special thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Thomas John, M.A., for his guidance throughout the creation of this paper.
