Many of us have most likely experienced strange familiarity with people such as seeing someone you work with at the station. Having a presence on social media links heavily to this as there will be many people you “know” online but encountering these people in person would lead to an awkward exchange at best. Modern society dictates that if you are not on some form of social media you are seen as “weird” which leads to many people using and staying on various social media platforms.

 Theresa M. Senft believes that the rise of social media has rendered the average person to never be obscure enough to be expendable.  She backs her claim with Neda Soltani’s story of her being mistaken for a murder victim and the repercussions being her having to move to another country in order to avoid the unwanted attention. Neda’s life will have changed forever from people acting upon the strange familiarity of the real murder victim. The daily life of the average person is mundane and which causes them to have a need for instant and intimate news coverage such as this story.

However I believe that even without social media, people would not ever be obscure enough to be expendable in our modern society. Most people will have some form of family and friends they keep in touch with on a daily basis. Expendable is quite a harsh adjective to put on a living person in relation to mere social media obscurity. There will always be people who have more of a presence than others online and in real life but I don’t believe that makes someone more or less expendable.

Digitalization of music has made CD’s and tapes of music obsolete. The internet has led to music being available online for practically everyone.  This poses the question as to how digitalization has affected the music industry and whether it is positively or negatively.

Connectivity vs control is one of the dimensions mentioned is a good example as to why the importance of physical music has been drastically reduced. Almost all my friends will listen to music digitally through an app such as Spotify or iTunes. The only time we would listen to music through other means would be the radio in the car and even that would be rare as being able to choose the song you want to listen to is much more convenient.

The removal of the need for physical goods in the music industry has made it difficult to charge a profitable amount for an individual track. Service vs product is another dimension spoken about in Patrick Wikstrom’s reading and service is something businesses can provide in order to profit from the music industry in our current modern society. Spotify is a great example of this as there is an abundant amount of music on its database and people pay for its convenience, accessibility (offline access), speed and many more features.

Programs such as Soundcloud have allowed for ‘non-professionals’ in music to create, remix and publish content online. Amateur vs professional is the final dimension Patrick speaks about and how the amateur musician has increased creativity due to digitalization. Music will be easier to create and will have more visibility in our current age. A good example would be Justin Bieber who rose to fame through a YouTube clip. One of his many achievements is his work in the track “Despacito” which is currently the most viewed YouTube clip.

The rise of technology in our society has led to most people having almost 24/7 access to mobile phones. With apps such as snapchat and Instagram, Wim Wenders’ stating that “we’re all taking billions of pictures” is very easy to agree with. Snapchat has almost 190 million daily users in 2019 and Instagram has approximately 95 million post daily. With such crazy high statistics such as these, the argument Wim Wenders makes that photography is “more dead than ever” can be agreed with but at the same time can be looked at a different perspective.

With people taking these billions of photos daily the value of photos drops significantly. What was once a long process of taking the film to a store and having them produce the physical photos for you, is now instantaneous and always accessible on your device. Many people may be discouraged to take photos as they may think it is pointless. What would the point be of taking a sunset photo when there are millions available online that are probably of much higher quality.

Although the value of photos have decreased, the fact that it is easy to take a photo and share it is a great thing. Susan Sontag states that “having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it”. Sharing these experiences you have with friends and saving them to your devices encapsulates the memory. Also, being able to share your activity through social media creates conversation and brings people closer. I believe that being able to keep these memories and to be able to share these moments so easily is priceless.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton