For most of us, we select or create specific digital memory pieces and share them on social media. For the other people, especially the strangers, they get to know us partially or even completely through this information. Here comes the question: what kind of impressions are we creating for ourselves? Are they the real us?
Since I did not share a lot on Facebook, I chose to use the data of my Wechat friend circle timeline to implement the idea. First, I categorized the content into three groups-- original content, shared content and feedback. The original content is the feeds I created which documented my life. The shared content is the articles and video I agreed or liked and forwarded on the timeline. Feedback is the likes and comments given by my Wechat contacts.
I found something interesting while going through these groups of data. I realized that even though I am almost completely honest with my families, usually I don't share information on certain topics with them, such as politics or opinions of relationships. On the other hand, for my elementary school and middle school classmates, we are almost strangers to each other. Thus, I don't feel very comfortable sharing all the details of my current life with them. Based on these two groups of data, I started to make masks to represent them.
There are three main parts on the masks which represent the three types of data. The colorful triangles around the eyes and mouth are the counterpart of the original content in my timeline. One color is a type of feeds, such as campus life, arts or professional. The amount of one category information decides the area of each triangle. Fluffy balls on the cheeks are the feeds I shared. The white parts on the top of the masks represent influence which is decided by the feedback I got from friends and families.
Instead of having a physical object for self-reflection, I realize that it might be better to have a real-time digital visualization of people's digital social memories. I would love to explore more possibilities in this area and create something more than just memory representation. People have been talking a lot about how technology changed us and the social norm. It will be interesting for me to find a way utilizing technology to eliminate its influence and even help people to behave more naturally and honestly.
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