Starting from Brief 1 it was a wonky start, but too a much more steady approach toward a specific topic. The practice has grown through iterative and critical experiments. What seems to be emerging out of it is a kit of experiments that aim to create a pedagogy around social media. A way to discuss both its negatives and positives. Some references have proved important to help propel my work to the next stage. The last piece of reference (Ten Arguments to Delete your Social Media Accounts Right now) has done it equally, if not less, than others to help me look at my practice from a critical vantage point. ‘Ten arguments to delete your social media accounts right now was suggested to me way back when I first dwelled into exploring social media and its effects on us. Reading it did provide some critical context into the tech and ways of approaching the pedagogy surrounding it. This book and Jaron Lanier’s practice as a whole challenged my current practice of staying critical.
Jaron Lanier in his 146-page long book tries a polemic approach, to explore the problems surrounding social media/networks. This reference acted as the other side of the multifaceted coin that is the pedagogy around social media, one of which is the critical approach that my practice tries to explore. Through the experiments and iterations conducted so far in my practice, they collectively try to enact a neutral position. Providing the audience with not a statement, but a question to think about. Generating awareness on both sides, be it the negative or the positive. While the form that my studio practice takes is depended upon the kind of message that the work is attempting to communicate, it is a much more fluid one. It does not confine to one medium or one form, making it easier for its dissemination to happen.
Social media, like everything, has its pros and cons. It is unto the people that use it, to also decide how to do so. As designers, it provides us with a great deal of power to create conversations and awareness around such influential technology. That is what my work is trying to achieve, to generate awareness, to create a conversation, and not assume a position but give the audience a neutral perspective. For a technology like social media, which is part of our daily lives it is important, that we do not just ignore it. There needs to be a critical understanding of all that forms it and the people who use it and what they use it for. Taking a one-sided perspective on themes such as these won’t help the cause. For the studio work up until now, it has been following a pattern where the work generated is from my perspective, it has been a way of understanding what I do on social media and why I do it. To propel my practice further, the next part would involve getting inputs from users in different walks of life and understanding how they create a space for this tech in their life and what reason occupies it.