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Alex Manescu

3/18/13

New Tech Lab

Anti-Social Media

For this revision of my final project I have decided to focus in on a singular theme

from my former proposal. I intend to explore the feeling of being voiceless despite being

surrounded with social interaction. This concept was the basis for my form construction

involving projection of visual and audio distortion using Max MSP Jitter based on the

number of people in the room at any given moment. I plan to keep this structure

relatively intact, with changes in content and context being the major revisions.

To keep this theme relevant to the exploration of ethics in technology, which is

deeply rooted in this course and throughout our text, I plan to focus on the breakdown of

empathy and intimacy in interpersonal relationships as a consequence of Social Media.

This topic is currently the subject of a heated debate in the scientific community as well

as popular opinion. However, it remains to be seen what the long term affects of the level

exposure to and immersion in this technology will be. A University of Michigan study

suggested that the statistical decline of empathy in the past thirty years could be a result

of the relatively recent hyper-exposure to media—specifically social media. In addition in

1992 anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed a scientific theory that suggests humans and

primates alike are only mentally capable of maintaining a mean “group size” of around

one hundred and fifty individuals.

This is also largely a personal exploration as much as it is relevant to emerging

technologies. Having struggled with clinical depression throughout my life and grown up

alongside this technology—I feel it is potentially a definitive aspect of myself as well as

my generation. It seems clear to me that the gamification of social interaction inherent in

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social media has made it that much more difficult to sincerely communicate with others,

despite being more connected than ever before in history.

In terms of aesthetic elements of this project I have several ideas. First the

correlation between amount of people present and the volume and type of distortion of

visual and audio elements being projected is very important to me. This represents the

core theme of the breakdown in communication and loss of empathy for those you are

surrounded by.

Some potential concepts I have for what is to be projected include,

• Using face-tracking via the cv.jit object library to literally capture the image of

faces entering the room and projecting them, perhaps visual obscuring or

distorting them, to create a sense of uneasiness regarding personal image

• Voice over readings of actual statuses from various social media outlets that

could be relevant to my concept, though do not necessarily need to be, for

authenticity and to attempt to instill empathy using this medium

o My thought is that the volume and pace of these sound bites could

increase as more people enter to mimic the feeling of anxiety and

frustration I have felt when I feel unable to express myself

• I have other possible considerations, however to give a concise idea of my

project, I will save those to be explored as I come to a head with the limitations of

both technology and ethical use

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Webliography

http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/7724 - University of Michigan study on empathy and

social media

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-

friends - NPR Article on Dunbar’s number in relation to social media

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number - Information on Dunbar’s Number

http://jmpelletier.com/cvjit/ - Information on the cv.jit object

http://cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=26006 - Cycling 74 forum topic on cv.jit

for reference