Social media provides us with an illusion of closeness and knowledge of others. "When viewing a photo of someone online, the image brings you closer to that person and invites you into their life" (Jurgenson, 83). It's not that people openly promote this idea, but since we also don't dispute it, the unspoken rule talks over us.
Jurgenson's descriptions of how social media profiles "compromise a highly organized spreadsheet that one is asked to squeeze oneself into" (Jurgenson, 89) informed my pictures this week. I wanted to make the fact that we are squeezing a small part of ourselves into these images more visually obvious. In order to call attention to the idea that a picture only tells a small part of the story of a moment, I decided to cut down on the amount of information given in the photo.
By using pictures of myself, especially close-ups of my body, I think I give the impression of physical closeness while also not disclosing much information. Interestingly, the incompleteness of these images does feel a bit unsatisfying and aggravating to me. I do feel the pull towards posting something more complete or holistic. I think the incompleteness also leans into the "presence through absence and absence through presence" (83) aspect of Jurgenson's argument. The absence of the rest of the image makes it more present to the viewer than it might be had I posted the full image.
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