Highbrow Magazine - instagram https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/instagram en The Rise and Fall of the Sassy Brand on Social Media https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10003-rise-and-fall-sassy-brand-social-media <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 05/26/2019 - 22:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1sassybrands.jpg?itok=e0WcN1Ks"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1sassybrands.jpg?itok=e0WcN1Ks" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>For approximately <a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a>four years now, big food brands have enjoyed an almost ubiquitous presence on social media. This is not the run-of-the-mill postings of seasonal promotions and retweets of pictures of syrupy pancakes; rather, food and food chain brands have begun to base their online presence on relatable content and pop culture riffs, using direct interaction with social media users to spread dank memes and savage clapbacks.</p> <p> </p> <p>Wendy’s Twitter account is replete with sassy comebacks and one-liners; Burger King is everyone’s favorite angsty millennial account that tweets existential memes in fluent Stan Twitter jargon; and Arby’s could potentially be used as a database of popular fandoms, from <em>Game of Thrones </em>to <em>Adventure Time, </em>from how much the food chain references them in its tweets.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is an interesting trend. The practice was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/10/08/wendys-twitter-roasts-have-become-the-envy-of-marketers-heres-how-it-does-it/#293640acfea4">praised</a> at first, with both clickbait and legitimate news sites <a href="https://www.business2community.com/strategy/why-it-pays-for-brands-to-be-strange-and-sassy-on-social-02164653">commending</a> the corporations’ clever use of social media to build their brand and grow their audience. This was, after all, an innovative way to reach more potential consumers. If Twitter is having a meltdown over Pharrell’s infamous Grammy’s hat, why not join in on the <a href="https://twitter.com/arbys/status/427614008946855936?lang=en">fun</a> and interact with social media users in a way that seems relatable to them the way Arby’s did? If the tweet goes viral and you sell a dozen more roast beef sandwiches, then the dig was well worth it.</p> <p> </p> <p>But lately, there has been growing criticism of this form of social media use, with more people taking notice that this is not one heroic social media intern from Taco Bell roasting an unassuming troll, but a giant corporation with an entire social media team behind every cheeky <a href="https://twitter.com/wendys/status/8312525580">comeback</a>. It wasn’t long ago that Wendy’s was <a href="https://twitter.com/wendys/status/400391525966053376?lang=en">enthralling</a> the twitterverse by showing us how to squirt the mustard on its square burgers; and now there’s an all-out war on which brand can out-sass the other, all of them seemingly competing for a piece of the pop culture pie to stay relevant in today’s meme culture.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2sassybrands.jpg" style="height:555px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Taco Bell has been consistently cocky on Twitter since as early as 2012, but one of the earliest examples of this use of social media (sharing relatable memes) to really blow up was not on Twitter at all. Created in early 2013, Denny’s Tumblr page quickly began posting surrealist memes. Likely in an attempt to mirror the way in which users generally use the platform, Denny’s Tumblr posts had deliberate misspelling of words, were full of self-deprecating humor, and made references to pop culture events. This strategy to use Tumblr pretty much exactly how it was meant to helped make Denny’s page this sort of ever-present presence on the site. Users were mostly amused at first, trying to figure out what this national food chain known for its breakfast-all-day menu was doing posting nihilistic memes. They were tickled by it in a “lol Denny’s are you OK” kind of way while the brand found its footing. Eventually, Denny’s MO on Tumblr became the <a href="https://twitter.com/dennysdiner/status/489418044725530626?lang=en">recycling</a> — or <em>re-hashing</em>, if you may — of popular memes reformatted to make it all about Denny’s. And in due time, Tumblr users simply accepted the fact that Denny’s was just one of them: sometimes relatable, oftentimes weird, but at least mostly always entertaining.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, in the chirping platform, Burger King was busy tweeting ineffective but wholesome pictures of its frozen lemonades. That is until a pivotal 2015 <a href="https://twitter.com/burgerking/status/616281327596404736">tweet</a>, in which the king of the burgers made a reference to the popular “What are <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-are-those">those</a>?!” meme, marking the food chain’s first truly viral tweet. Having had a taste of a meme’s potential to go viral, Burger King quickly learned to make use of pop culture riffs and to post more relatable content.</p> <p> </p> <p>Wendy’s, on its part, was slowly but surely becoming arguably the most favored in the hierarchy of Brand Twitter. Basing its social media presence on its witty comebacks and quips, Wendy’s Twitter account became so popular that its follower count went from a respectable 161K in 2013, to a downright outstanding 2.5 million, all thanks to that firecracker sass the redhead burger-maker has become known for. Wendy’s Twitter account is so prominent that the team behind the zingers and clapbacks did an AMA on Reddit, amassing over 42,000 upvotes and with some Reddit users straight up gifting Wendy’s with Reddit Gold. Reddit Gold (now called Reddit Premium) was a deluxe membership of sorts that users of the site could use to access special features, almost like a form of Reddit currency and, as such, it cost real money. So well-liked and well-received was Wendy’s social media team’s AMA that users were giving literal money to this multimillion-dollar corporation in return for practically nothing except maybe a few chuckles. </p> <p> </p> <p>This Wendy’s AMA was pretty <a href="https://www.adweek.com/creativity/10-things-we-learned-about-wendys-twitter-from-its-reddit-ama/">illuminating</a>, as it gave us a quick glance into the inner workings of a corporation’s social media department, and it showcased that cognitive dissonance that plagues consumers who now see these corporations as individuals with fully formed identities. This is what many are now making a fuss about, how brands behaving like normal people has made it difficult for consumers to separate the corporation from its social media persona. In other words, the line has become so blurred that consumers may no longer be able to recognize that every sassy clapback and pop culture reference is, at the end of the day, an ad.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3sassybrands.jpg" style="height:346px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Part of this may certainly be a result of the way in which we consume advertising now. It used to be that ads were pretty formulaic, where marketers showed us a product, told us why we needed it, and then told us to buy it. Before the advent of social media, clear breaks during your favorite television show marked the point where an ad was about to air, so that you can choose to remain seated and consume the ad, or get up to check on the wings cooking in the oven while the ad played unwatched in the background. These methods have not disappeared, but the jackpot now seems to be not on static advertisement but on branding. More so than simply selling you a new pair of sneakers that can make you run <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL__v94Dae4">faster</a> and jump higher, for example, shoe brands now want to build a certain brand identity and project a strategic aesthetic that consumers are more likely to remember and connect back to their products. And so Nike makes shoes for brave revolutionaries who kneel during the national anthem, and Vans look good on any skateboard and the more worn-out they are, the more street cred you get.</p> <p> </p> <p>Branding is also behind the much-hyped Super Bowl commercials. These ads were not made to flat-out sell a product (although that is always the endgame), but rather to be memorable, easily shared, and with a high potential to go viral. So that as many Facebook users as possible see them and at least remember that hysterical little tidbit where a slightly off-kilter Steve Carell declared that Pepsi is the best thing we’ve ever tasted and was definitely more than just OK, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYElEbRzKA">okurrr</a>?</p> <p><br /> But these are calculated advertising campaigns. Late last year, Burger King caused a mild commotion by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-explains-bizarre-tweets-2018-11">tweeting</a> gibberish for hours. Seemingly a glitch, the tweets generated direct responses from many users, bemused at the gobbledygook the burger giant was putting out into the twitterverse. Little Debbie’s tongue-in-cheek zing was <a href="https://twitter.com/LittleDebbie/status/106782749">present</a>, and Hooters <a href="https://twitter.com/Hooters/status/106786535230083072">tweeted</a> “heard that” in binary code, apparently finding the nonsense totally relatable. It turns out that the mumbo jumbo barrage was a prologue to the announcement that Cini Minis were back on Burger King’s menu. The intern didn’t go rogue and the cat did not run over the keyboard, Burger King explained in a later tweet; it was just hard to type with icing on their hands from all the delicious Cini Minis they were popping in all day long.</p> <p> </p> <p>During its AMA, the Wendy’s social media team brought its usual charm and flippant humor. Where do they get their excellent roasting skills? a user asked. Inherited from smart-mouthed families, Wendy’s answered. Wanna get a job writing media for Wendy’s? Gotta chug a sarsaparilla in 5 seconds without getting sick. It’s all fun and games, really! But it turns out, as they explained, that just tweeting for Wendy’s is not a 40-hours-per-week gig - it takes more manpower hours than that. There is an entire team behind a couple of main people in charge of the tweeting itself—a full-fledged squad tasked with helping them run their social accounts. And for some tweets, Wendy’s scalawag social media team requires actual corporate approval. Tweets directed at McDonald’s, a frequent target of Wendy’s rascally sass, always require prior approval before the social media team can post them.   </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4sassybrands.jpg" style="height:443px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This is what Brand Twitter is doing at the core. Building brand visibility so that consumers associate a specific persona with a burger or a double-shell taco. So it’s not just Wendy’s Twitter account that’s sassy and cool and irreverent, the whole company is quirky and super-relatable because look at how they dealt with that online troll using a perfect reaction meme; it was so savage. Because of this, consumers begin to correlate a brand’s social media presence with their products, rather than taking it at face value and realizing that there is a giant corporation and a full process behind every tweet and Tumblr meme. That’s the point. All these retweets and likes are not necessarily trying to sell you a burger; rather, the next time you’re on your lunch break pondering what to eat, you will remember that Buzzfeed list of Taco Bell’s funniest tweets, chortle in amusement, and head on over to treat yourself to a Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco Supreme. And the tactic is incredibly effective, especially because it’s difficult to realize it’s even happening.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a well-observed phenomenon. In essence, the more immune you think you are to subconscious influence and manipulation, the more susceptible to it you actually become. This is something communication scholars call the “third-person effect,” and it describes scenarios in which a person thinks they are immune to subconscious propaganda, while at the same time believing that other people are not smart enough to recognize it.</p> <p> </p> <p>It has been surveilled and <a href="https://www.jou.ufl.edu/insights/third-per">detected</a> in a myriad of scenarios – from people believing they are well-adapted to recognize fake news while other, less savvy people easily fall prey to misleading headlines; to individuals thinking that the lyrics in hip-hop songs don’t affect them personally at all, but they are definitely an influence on the easily corrupted youth in the urban centers of New York and Los Angeles. We need only look at the irreverent mess plagued with misinformation that was the 2016 presidential election to witness this in action.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a notion of “Well, I’m no fool! I would know if a sassy redhead was trying to sell me burgers. Some less capable idiots must be falling for it.” But because we make the decision that we are not being influenced, especially at the subconscious level, we let our guard down. It’s the equivalent of staying seated on the couch when a commercial comes on the television, deciding that I know I don’t actually need a new razor, but gosh darn it, that Gillette commercial is so touching and it gets me pumped up every time I see men being decent humans, so I’m gonna stay put and watch this one harmless ad.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5sassybrand.jpg" style="height:253px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Users are now beginning to call these brands out, realizing how exploitative these methods can be. In an attempt to foil Denny’s practice of commercializing memes, Tumblr users <a href="https://memedocumentation.tumblr.com/post/159962064735/explained-john-c-miller-meme">created</a> their own version of popular memes by superimposing on them the phrase: “John C. Miller, CEO and President of the Denny’s Corporation, is a capitalist running dog and his wealth must be seized and redistributed to the people.” Basically, when these repurposed memes went viral on the site, Tumblr users wanted to see Denny’s try to use the inflammatory meme for its marketing. It was a lose-lose situation, where Denny’s would have to either ignore the meme and tacitly agree that it does in fact recycle meme content with the purpose of commercialization while it gets roasted on a site where it used to be loved, or take the bait and re-blog a meme distributing anti-capitalist propaganda. Denny’s eventually <a href="https://blog.dennys.com/post/159991129938/tumblr-we-are-a-capitalist-running-dog">responded</a> to the meme, leaving Tumblr users feeling duped with its cheeky response, while still being able to capitalize on the seditious meme (the response has over 12,000 notes on Tumblr).</p> <p> </p> <p>This critical response seems to ring especially true when brands sometimes go a little too far, taking real current issues that legitimately affect millions of people and use them for advertisement purposes.</p> <p>     </p> <p>Take Steak-umm, which went on a seething <a href="https://twitter.com/steak_umm/status/1045038141978169344?lang=en">rant</a> channeling every ounce of millennial angst to defend the scapegoat generation. It was a pretty astonishing tirade, touching on many sore points that would make excellent sources of inspiration for any millennial manifesto worth its salt. Which, thank you? But also, why? I imagine I would have been happy if Steak-umm had just DM me a coupon to get $1 off my next frozen steak dinner. But I suppose I, like all the disillusioned youth of Generation Y, also “look for love, guidance, and attention on social media” as Steak-umm asserts because being young sucks. So if a fellow lonely millennial wrote this Twitter rant, I guess I see you and I support you. Though it is more likely that the Pennsylvania-based corporation was just trying to sell me some millennial <a href="https://www.steakumm.com/">swag</a> when its social media team wrote that thread.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sunny D, meanwhile, went on apparent suicide watch when it <a href="https://twitter.com/sunnydelight/status/1092247574336163840?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw%257Ctwcamp%255Etweetembed%257Ctwterm%255">tweeted</a> “I can’t do this anymore” without any other sort of context. And hey, it may very well be that whoever was in charge of Sunny D’s Twitter account was just out of her wits because of how long and insufferably boring that night’s Super Bowl game was; but it must be said that a big corporation using a phrase commonly associated with depression and possible suicide (presumably with the intent of selling more orange juice?) is just not acceptable. So, as expected, because without context, the juice-maker’s tweet sounded borderline suicidal, other brands like <a href="https://twitter.com/MoonPie/status/1092408748088406016">Moon Pie</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/PopTartsUS/status/1092480366735249408">Pop Tarts</a> rallied around the orange-flavored drink to give solace and words of comfort. <a href="https://twitter.com/gomez_the_great/status/1092515140698656768">Little Debbie</a>, in a since deleted tweet, gave out some free tips to address clinical depression. The following day, Sunny D <a href="https://twitter.com/sunnydelight/status/1092412006781599744">offered</a> no explanation, stating simply that it had been in a mood when it sent out that tweet. Was the brand in a mood? Do brands get moody? What needs to happen for a multimillion-dollar corporation like Harvest Hill (which owns Sunny D) to sigh in defeat, throw its arms up, and declare that it can’t do this anymore as it bangs its head on the desk? Do corporations have heads to bang on desks?</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6sassybrands.jpg" style="height:375px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://news.avclub.com/sunny-delight-and-little-debbie-are-tweeting-about-depr-1832340635">Many</a> <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1542797/snack-twitter-from-whoopie-pies-to-corn-nuts-is-rallying-around-a-depressed-sunnyd/">mediums</a> were quick to point out, rightly so, that there seemed to be an ethical boundary that was being crossed. Sunny D’s tweet was perhaps supposed to be a harmless off-the-cuff comment on the inertia of the Super Bowl game, but to many Twitter users it looked clearly like a cry for help. And going on a Twitter rant about the mental health of young people probably seemed like the best way for Steak-umm to get my attention. Brands are literally <a href="https://www.eater.com/2018/12/20/18148884/steak-umm-tweet-depression-advertising">selling</a> us depression to capitalize on the existential dread—and surely real mental health issues—that have defined this generation and, perhaps even to a greater extent, Generation Z. </p> <p> </p> <p>This is some next-level advertising, even if we think we are not susceptible to it. It’s not the clearcut marketing we consume when a commercial comes on the TV, but rather a subtle way to ingrain a brand’s image in our minds. Ads are starting to look less and less like ads and more like fun content that we share with our friends, whether in the form of a meme or a sassy tweet. This exemplifies how unescapable advertising is now and how we may not recognize it for what it is, so we consume and share it without regard. This has allowed massive corporations to be envisioned as fun, friendly individuals. And as this form of advertising becomes more pervasive, it makes it harder to call corporations out and examine their practices when things go awry. Because no one <a href="https://www.avclub.com/eating-tomatoes-from-wendy-s-is-the-hot-new-way-to-own-1821993648">wants</a> to throw a wet blanket on a fun and sassy redhead even for <a href="http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-labor/">questionable</a> business operations. And so perhaps the best thing we can do is try to be conscious of where our decision is coming from when we opt for an S’Awesome Bacon Cheeseburger rather than a Double Whopper for our cheat-day treat. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em></strong><strong> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/twitter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Twitter</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/facebook" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Facebook</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/instagram" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">instagram</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/twitter-posts" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">twitter posts</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wendys" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wendy&#039;s</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/taco-bell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">taco bell</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/burger-king" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">burger king</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dennys" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">denny&#039;s</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arbys" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">arby&#039;s</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tumblr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tumblr</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-media-posts" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social media posts</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/food-brands" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">food brands</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/posting-twitter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">posting on twitter</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 27 May 2019 02:29:07 +0000 tara 8759 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10003-rise-and-fall-sassy-brand-social-media#comments Yes, Limiting Social Media Can Improve Your Health https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9640-yes-limiting-social-media-can-improve-your-health <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 12/31/2018 - 11:58</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/4socialmedia.jpg?itok=1a2k0yKc"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/4socialmedia.jpg?itok=1a2k0yKc" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published in the <em>Asian Journal</em>. Read the rest <a href="http://www.asianjournal.com/life-style/health-wellness/simply-limiting-social-media-time-can-improve-mental-health-new-study-says/">here</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Discussions on the link between social media use and mental health are nothing new, but researchers at the University of Pennsylvania for the first time conducted a study based on experimental data that connects the causal relationship between social media use and mental well-being.</p> <p> </p> <p>What they found was that simply limiting social media use could be beneficial when it comes to better mental health, specifically when it comes to depression and loneliness. This, given the reality that social media is not something people will stop using all together.</p> <p> </p> <p>The findings were published in the December <em>Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology</em> by Melissa G. Hunt, the associate director of clinical training at the university’s Department of Psychology.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We set out to do a much more comprehensive, rigorous study that was also more ecologically valid,” Hunt told the university’s online publication, <em>Penn Today</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>The study was conducted by randomly splitting 143studentsinto a control group and an experimental group. Those in the control group were asked to use social media platforms — specifically Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram — as they usually do. The experimental group on the other hand was asked to limit social media usage to a maximum of 30 minutes per day with 10 minutes on each platform.</p> <p> </p> <p>To measure the outcome, students completed a well-being survey twice — once before the study began, and again after four weeks of sticking to the assigned usage time limits (or lack thereof).</p> <p> </p> <p>For three weeks, the students provided researchers with iPhone battery screenshots for their individual weekly tallies. They then rated seven well-being measures including fear of missing out (FOMO), anxiety, loneliness, depression, and self-esteem.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3socialmedia.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“Here’s the bottom line,” Hunt told <em>Penn Today</em>. “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness. These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into the study.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The study found that those in the experimental group had significant reductions in depression and loneliness compared to those in the control group. Those who reported a high level of depression at the study’s start later said they experienced a “clinically significant” reduction in symptoms.</p> <p> </p> <p>Further, both the control and experimental groups saw significant decreases in FOMO and anxiety, which researchers said could have been a result of students in both groups being more aware of their social media use by simply participating in the study.</p> <p> </p> <p>Given the likelihood that even those in the control group would be conscious of their usage, the study found that self-monitoring and being mindful in general made a difference in mental well-being.</p> <p> </p> <p>One student said, “I ended up using [social media] less and felt happier… I could focus on school and not [be as] interested in what everyone is up to.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published in the <em>Asian Journal</em>. Read the rest <a href="http://www.asianjournal.com/life-style/health-wellness/simply-limiting-social-media-time-can-improve-mental-health-new-study-says/">here</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social media</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/facebook" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Facebook</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/twitter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Twitter</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/instagram" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">instagram</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tweets" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tweets</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/depression-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">depression</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mental-health" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mental health</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rae Ann Varona</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Healthline via Asian Journal; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 31 Dec 2018 16:58:13 +0000 tara 8454 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9640-yes-limiting-social-media-can-improve-your-health#comments How Social Media Abet the Political Right https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8634-how-social-media-abet-political-right <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 11/05/2017 - 16:43</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/5socialmedia_pxhere_-_cc.jpg?itok=70s8qFE1"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/5socialmedia_pxhere_-_cc.jpg?itok=70s8qFE1" width="480" height="348" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p> <strong>This article was originally published in <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/social-media-abet-political-right-not-might-think/">BillMoyers.com</a></strong>.</p> <p>                                                                       </p> <p>So much of the discussion about Donald Trump’s success in politics has focused on how he has mastered social media, particularly Twitter, with his continual tweets that dominate the national conversation while also rousing and even inciting his “alt-right” base. As he told Maria Bartiromo, “Tweeting is like a typewriter — when I put it out, you put it immediately on your show. I mean the other day, I put something out, two seconds later I am watching your show, it’s up.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump is, as I have remarked previously, a maestro of social media. He knows how to take advantage of its microtargeting of constituencies as well as its megaphone effect that drowns out more sensible remarks, and he has radically transformed political messaging as a result. We have gone from the TV age of politics to the social media age of distraction politics, and just as John Kennedy was the prime exemplar of the first, Trump is the prime exemplar of the second.</p> <p> </p> <p>But in some respects, this may be among the least of the political impacts of social media. Above and beyond Trump’s tweets and his circumvention of traditional media, there is a much more profound but much subtler effect that plays upon certain psychological and social proclivities in America today and that is changing politics generally and has already changed our political leadership. And while this is by no means Trump-specific, it has a very strong affinity for the right wing. Put more starkly, social media aid and abet the right wing and “alt-right” political figures like Trump, not because the “alt-right” and Trump are better at social media, but because social media have an intrinsic rightish tilt.</p> <p> </p> <p>This isn’t the way most people had imagined it. Social media, devised by techie geniuses incubated at Harvard, MIT and Stanford, were supposed to have a liberal bias. Right-wing technophobes wouldn’t understand it or know how to use it. Its primary consumers would be young folks, who generally lean liberal and Democratic. Social media would provide a national web connecting the bright, the young, the technologically proficient and it would all be serving liberal interests. Like the democratization of media, it would provide the ability for all people to have a platform and freedom of information.</p> <p> </p> <p>But that was either liberal arrogance or wrong-headed idealism. In practice, conservatives proved more adept at using social media than liberals. If you want to read one of the most terrifying but essential political stories, take a look at Alexis Madrigal’s piece in <em>The Atlantic,</em> “What Facebook Did to American Democracy,” which explains how the “alt-right” and its various facilitators (including the Russians and Macedonian teenagers) figured out how to direct ads to niche audiences that would support Trump and provide targeted disinformation that would aid Trump. This was an effort both so massive and so devious that it escapes any capacity to detect it or corral it — basically a separate, virtual reality that overwhelmed reality itself. As Madrigal puts it, “The very roots of the electoral system — the news people see, the events they think happened, the information they digest — had been destabilized.” It is not too much to say that Donald Trump was the result.</p> <p> </p> <p>But as important as this is — and it is very important — it is not what I am talking about when I cite the threats of social media. This kind of manipulation Madrigal describes still operates within the bounds of political hanky panky, albeit with a new, highly sophisticated, epistemological edge. I am talking not about the ways in which social media distort the information we receive, but the ways in which social media draw upon and intensify our whole way of processing information and everything else.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is by now a given that social media have changed and continue to change the way we interact with one another and even with our own selves, the way we use our time, the way we prioritize and value things, the way we respond emotionally, the way we assess information and a thousand other components of our lives. For the post-millennials, nearly everything is refracted through social media, but the spillover effect is huge.</p> <p> </p> <p>There is no room here to enumerate each of these transformations. But a few are worth mentioning because whether we recognize it or not, they can, and I believe do, have vast political implications. To begin with, for all the boasts of connectivity, social media actually isolate us and drive us back into ourselves. Facebook alone may be the largest platform of self-promotion ever devised by humankind, but of course, Facebook is not alone. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many others are ostensibly dedicated to sharing when they are really dedicated to solipsism: You are always the star of your page, always centralizing what you are doing. Worse, social media encourages an anonymous meanness that actively splinters us. There probably always were trolls, but they had no platform for their poison. Now they do.</p> <p> </p> <p>Social media have also shunted aside conversation in favor of texting, and in the process, shunted aside face-to-face human communication. MIT social psychologist Sherry Turkle, one of the leading experts on the effects of social media, has even written a book titled <em>Reclaiming Conversation</em>, in which she notes not only how the retreat to the smartphone has atomized us, but also how, through separation and self-centeredness, it has endangered empathy, which is the very core of a civic culture, perhaps even the very core of humanity.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1trump_5.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>And more, Turkle describes how even face-to-face conversations that cannot be held without a smartphone on the table or in one’s hand contribute to a sense of personal devaluation: You aren’t as important as the person I am texting or from whom I am receiving a text. We talk a lot about economic devaluation in America, about how so many in the middle class feel disempowered, but this social devaluation may be no less humiliating.</p> <p> </p> <p>Another technological savant, Eli Pariser, the founder of MoveOn.org and UpWorthy, in his prescient 2011 book, <em>The Filter Bubble</em>, shows how social media, with their plethora of algorithms, give us customized, curated information that never takes us outside ourselves or our own biases, but only reinforces them. In effect, social media create an informational onanism, which, again, destroys a sense of community and circumscribes national conversation every bit as much as it aborts personal conversation. And it does something more: It makes all information that doesn’t conform to one’s biases suspicious. Social media — the “social” here is practically ironic — disallows us from accepting anyone else’s arguments — that is, disallows us from being social. In fact, it delegitimizes not just arguments but all information by seeming to legitimize all information.</p> <p> </p> <p>Perhaps, most important, social media contribute to a sense of profound unhappiness. Sociologist Jean Twenge, writing in <em>The Atlantic</em>, surveyed young smartphone-obsessed consumers — post-millennials whom she labeled “iGen” — and found a decline in most IRL social activities: dating, sex, hanging out with friends, driving, working, family engagement. Many of these iGeners, for all their time “socializing” on their phones, felt left out, lonely. Indeed, nearly everyone on social media is on social media because they are terrified of FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out. Twenge said this generation is on the “brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, another researcher, Donna Freitas, writes in her book <em>The Happiness Effect</em>, that young people using social media frequently talked about their fears of silence and solitude, which compelled them to ponder things they might not feel comfortable pondering, and the pressures to seem to be more than they really were — that is, to live up to the image of themselves they curate online. This, I think, is directly related to the pernicious “winner and loser” syndrome overtaking America that I discussed several weeks back. “Our devices and our compulsive posting and checking are helping us flee ourselves,” Freitas says. We feel the need to be perfect, like everyone else on social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>None of these things is necessarily the result of social media. Rather, one might very well say that social media are a result of them. Anonymity, alienation, dislocation, devaluation, suspicion of solitude and silence, the decline of conversation, undifferentiated information — these had all been identified by Robert Putnam as modern American afflictions in his classic study, <em>Bowling Alone</em>, about the decline of civic engagement, long before the advent of the internet and social media. To many, social media must have seemed like a cure — a way to create community across geographic lines. Instead, it has exacerbated the problems by not only creating more of what it was intended to solve, but by giving an outlet for the anger, resentment, loneliness and unhappiness that roiled beneath the surface. Social media are a mechanism now for channeling our discontents — a kind of virtual Munich beer hall.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to read a terrific piece about how Twitter morphed from a way to share to a way to promote hate, read this one.</p> <p> </p> <p>You may begin to see a theme developing here. Self-centeredness and solipsism, division and tribalism, disinformation and misinformation tailored to one’s predispositions, the need for constant stimulation (FOMO) without reflection, bullying against those who disagree, a lack of empathy — these are all hallmarks of the “alt-right” and of the Trump presidency. Trump is not, in reality, their master, though he has learned to use the tools of social media to his benefit. He is actually their product — the product of the social and psychological dynamics that fuel social media. This is why the right was almost destined to use social media more effectively than the left. It was made for social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a way, then, social media called forth a Donald Trump. And since there seems no diminution in the breadth or power of social media, nor any way to disarm them, we are stuck with some gigantic, untamable network that, for all its very real benefits, will serve the very forces that divide us and turn us against one another, that delegitimize information and degrade debate, that make us miserable, and that, frankly, make us stupid. Donald Trump may be the first social media president, which is bad enough. But he isn’t likely to be the last.</p> <p> </p> <p>That should bother us every bit as much as the Russians or those Macedonian teenagers, but in this case the problems are inside us.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Neal Gabler is an author of five books and the recipient of two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, TIME magazine's non-fiction book of the year, USA Today's biography of the year and other awards. He is also a senior fellow at The Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, and is currently writing a biography of Sen. Edward Kennedy.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This article was originally published in <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/social-media-abet-political-right-not-might-think/">BillMoyers.com</a></strong>.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-twitter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump on twitter</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social media</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/facebook" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Facebook</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/instagram" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">instagram</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-tweets" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump tweets</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alt-right" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alt right</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/right-wing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">right wing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/conservatives" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">conservatives</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Neal Gabler</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> Google Images (Creative Commons); Pxhere (Creative Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 05 Nov 2017 21:43:27 +0000 tara 7802 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8634-how-social-media-abet-political-right#comments A Shattering Of Tradition: Art in The Age of the Smartphone https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3832-shattering-tradition-art-age-smartphone <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 09:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1smartphoneartWLAD.jpg?itok=hJ5WWZoC"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1smartphoneartWLAD.jpg?itok=hJ5WWZoC" width="480" height="376" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><em>“…that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind.”</em> --<strong>Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction”</strong></p> <p><em>“The work of art in the age of digital reproduction is physically and formally chameleon.  There is no clear conceptual distinction now between original and reproduction in virtually any medium based in film, electronics, or telecommunications.  As for the fine arts, the distinction is eroding, if not finally collapsed.  The fictions of “master” and “copy” are now so entwined with each other that it is impossible to say where one begins and the other ends.  In one sense, Walter Benjamin’s proclamation of doom for the aura of originality, authored early in this century, is finally confirmed by these events.  In another sense, the aura, supple and elastic, has stretched far beyond the boundaries of Benjamin’s prophecy into the rich realm of reproduction itself.”<strong>--</strong></em><strong>Douglas Davis, “The Work of Art In The Age of Digital Reproduction”</strong></p> <p><em>"Will the digital age kill off art?" No.  Next.”--</em> <strong>Commenter for The Guardian’s July </strong><strong>2</strong><strong><sup>nd</sup></strong><strong>, 2013 article “Will The Digital Age Kill Off Art?”</strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Last month, this writer had both the great and terrible misfortune to be in New York during the final week of Jean Paul Gaultier’s traveling retrospective <em>The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk; </em>which was ending its run at the Brooklyn Museum. Sadly, in the end, she had to appease herself with merely viewing images of the show from websites such as Racked, <em>The New York Times</em>, and various YouTube videos.  Being able to view the pieces on a Smartphone didn’t incite a thrill about having to live vicariously through those who were lucky enough to be present.  Viewing iconic pieces worn by Madonna at the peak of her fame on a three-inch screen paled in comparison to seeing them in person, and only heightened the sense of loss on missing a great exhibit.  However, for others in a similar position, that surely would have and did suffice.  In the November 20, 2013 The Creators Project <a href="http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/painting-the-internet-jeanette-hayes">article</a> “Painting The Internet: Jeannette Hayes’ Art For The Digital Age,” Madison Alexander Moore wrote that “People love capturing art on their smartphones, whether it’s allowed or not…the smartphone has become a major character in museums and art galleries around the world.”  </p> <p>This current state of affairs far surpasses anything either Benjamin or Davis could have predicted.  As Benjamin prophesied, the slow and steady “shattering of tradition” the digital age ushered in has been greatly accelerated by the advent of the Smartphone.  The evidence is everywhere: From ubiquitous iPhone cases showcasing works by contemporary artists like the late Keith Haring and British graffiti activist Banksy and even more profoundly by the popularity of image-driven apps like Tumblr and Instagram, not just with the general art viewing or buying public, but also amongst the creators themselves. </p> <p>During her interview with Moore, New York based artist Jeannette Hayes waxed ecstatic about the use of filters on sites like Instagram.  “That’s how the world is and it’s cool because why not?  If you want to fix something or look a certain way you now can do exactly what you want.  When it comes to filters and things, I think there should be hundreds more.  It’s insane that we’re stuck with the eleven or whatever filters they pick.” </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2smartphoneart%20%28Saul%20Hernangomes%20Reyes%29.jpg" style="height:640px; width:640px" /></p> <p>Hayes’ pieces celebrate the current era by gleefully juxtaposing classic works of art alongside the banal realities of modern life.  In her “Botticelli Photobooth” series, she metaphorically copy-pasted the Renaissance painter’s works into modern photo-editing programs.  Her interview with Moore also bore more of the same:  She shamelessly discussed her “Warholian” influences and working on a painting inspired by emoji icons alongside her admiration of TMZ and reality TV stars Tamar Braxton and Nene Leakes.  A few of the icons she compares herself to in her Twitter introduction are Ivanka Trump, Heidi Montag and Jeff Koons.</p> <p> </p> <p> In the headline for the January 17, 2014 Paper.com <a href="http://www.papermag.com/2014/01/jeanettte_hayes.php">profile</a> about her, she quips that “…Rembrandt would have loved taking selfies.”  When one learns that Hayes transitioned from modeling into her present career, that she provided designs for the fashion designers Proenza Schouler, and that her big break was courtesy of a 2012 group show that also featured work by <em>Girls</em> star Jemima Kirke, it would seem that she represents a new kind of art star, but Ms. Hayes’ cynicism-free embrace of our media-saturated world is no more different than Haring’s Pop Shop or Basquiat collaborating with Warhol in their primes.  It will be fascinating to see how Hayes utilizes all the possibilities of digital art. </p> <p>One of the possibilities that await Instagram users who are driven either by curiosity or boredom with their current feed is to take a chance on the “explore” feature.  Within seconds, a user who observed a fellow foodie’s dinner in Los Angeles can now be transported to such far-flung locales as Malaysia or Sao Paolo.  Spain-based artists Jorge Martinez Phil Gonzalez have now taken that feature one step further with the creation of the world’s first Instagram Gallery in Miami.  The new space, situated in the celeb magnet otherwise known as Wynwood is devoted to “…promoting and disseminating the most outstanding and valued photos in the Instagramers Gallery digital platform… There the <a href="http://www.instagramersgallery.com/en/showroom.html">Instagramers Gallery</a> becomes a real experience exploring the unique worldview of instagramers and providing them with opportunities to attend discussions, forums, events, presentations and, of course, a wide range of expositions.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3smartphoneart%20%28Flaviz%20Guerra%29.jpg" style="height:640px; width:640px" /></p> <p>What was once thought of as just another vehicle for documenting the lives of millenials has now been elevated to a higher status as a forum that has the potential to showcase art from up-and-coming photographers from places as diverse Brazil, South Africa and Italy, all of which have been featured on the gallery’s website.  In addition to featuring their artists both in their galleries and online, Instagrammers Gallery Miami also awards a daily prize of $1,000 to the best instagram of the day.  There are also plans later this year to open a second European gallery in Madrid. </p> <p>Spaces like the aforementioned are yet another reminder that we live in an image-saturated time replete with Internet memes, retweets, and shares.  It’s probably too soon to ask whether a picture still manages to speak a thousand words if it’s been through a litany of Photoshop and Instagram filters.  At the time that Davis wrote his piece, video conferencing was a “phenomenon” and the DAT and QuickTime movies presented new opportunities and challenges for artists. </p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly 25 years later, cameras are more commonplace than Starbucks in the country, and MP3 players are a thing of the recent past.  While this author didn’t appreciate experiencing a major retrospective through her Samsung, last December, the International Arts Museum Malaysia recently made over 100 contemporary Islamic works available for the first time through their Smartphone app. Art lovers who are unable to hop on a flight to Kuala Lumpur can now discover artists from China, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia; and as they are countries that have a tendency to get short shrift coverage in Western media, it would be extremely obtuse to ignore the impact of such a move. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumiphone%20%28Daniel%20Zanetti%20Wiki%29.jpg" style="height:371px; width:600px" /></p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Sophia Dorval is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smart-phones" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">smart phones</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iphones" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">iphones</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/instagram" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">instagram</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/photography" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">photography</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-digital-age" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art in the digital age</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/creating-images" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">creating images</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-galleries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art galleries</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sophia Dorval</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">WLAD; Saul Hernangomes Reyes; Flaviz Guerra; Daniel Zanetti (Wikipedia Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:50:08 +0000 tara 4455 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3832-shattering-tradition-art-age-smartphone#comments