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Exploring the Languages of Digital Media

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Our age group has firsthand experienced the negative effects of social media, and are no stranger to the relationship our age group has with social media and its most popular stars. But with all things, it's important to see what science can tell us specifically about the issue when formulating our opinions. This "Exploratory Analysis" highlights a few main points that are especially relevant to the piece I have created.

"Mental health problems have increased, especially among young people, over the last decade...Among these illnesses, disordered eating behaviors are rapidly increasing in a short time, especially among young women[1,2,3]."

"Although these diseases have a crucial psychobiological component, social and cultural factors have a significant influence. Among these factors, advertising has been described as an internalizing or normalizing means to spread unrealistic beauty ideals. Therefore, a higher incidence of these diseases is presented in advanced and modern societies and people with the best living conditions, mostly caused by the popularization of thin and muscular ideals [11,12,13]."

"Another critical factor is the media by which beauty ideals have been promoted. The media plays a vital role in formulating what is attractive in society, increasing the thin beauty ideal among females being unattainable [29,30]. These ideals confirmed the way young people perceived themselves and, therefore, how they value themselves [10,31]. This contradiction between what society portrays as a role model and the real body that many young women have has resulted in body concerns. Body concerns usually maintain over time and increase body dissatisfaction. This body dissatisfaction emerges because of the distortion on the body image, its perception and, therefore, body concern [32,33]. This dissatisfaction also plays an essential role in disordered eating attitudes since it provokes emotional and psychological distress[34]."

In this sense, the theory of social comparison and numerous studies have studied the relationship between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes to better understand the causes of these illnesses. These previous works showed that real comparisons with other people leads to a distortion of body image and may favour disorderly feeding [11,29,35]. Additionally, Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) suggested that sexualization and self-objectification promoted via media should be considered as a risk factor for disordered eating attitudes [36,37,38]. Based on previous and recent studies it seems that the role of the media in disordered eating attitudes is noteworthy [1,11,39].
See more at the national library of medicine, or https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6861923/

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1. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Our age group has firsthand experienced the negative effects of social media, and are no stranger to the relationship our age group has with social media and its most popular stars. But with all things, it's important to see what science can tell us specifically about the issue when formulating our opinions. This "Exploratory Analysis" highlights a few main points that are especially relevant to the piece I have created.
  
  "Mental health problems have increased, especially among young people, over the last decade...Among these illnesses, disordered eating behaviors are rapidly increasing in a short time, especially among young women[1,2,3]."
  
  "Although these diseases have a crucial psychobiological component, social and cultural factors have a significant influence. Among these factors, advertising has been described as an internalizing or normalizing means to spread unrealistic beauty ideals. Therefore, a higher incidence of these diseases is presented in advanced and modern societies and people with the best living conditions, mostly caused by the popularization of thin and muscular ideals [11,12,13]."
  
  "Another critical factor is the media by which beauty ideals have been promoted. The media plays a vital role in formulating what is attractive in society, increasing the thin beauty ideal among females being unattainable [29,30]. These ideals confirmed the way young people perceived themselves and, therefore, how they value themselves [10,31]. This contradiction between what society portrays as a role model and the real body that many young women have has resulted in body concerns. Body concerns usually maintain over time and increase body dissatisfaction. This body dissatisfaction emerges because of the distortion on the body image, its perception and, therefore, body concern [32,33]. This dissatisfaction also plays an essential role in disordered eating attitudes since it provokes emotional and psychological distress[34]."
  
  In this sense, the theory of social comparison and numerous studies have studied the relationship between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes to better understand the causes of these illnesses. These previous works showed that real comparisons with other people leads to a distortion of body image and may favour disorderly feeding [11,29,35]. Additionally, Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) suggested that sexualization and self-objectification promoted via media should be considered as a risk factor for disordered eating attitudes [36,37,38]. Based on previous and recent studies it seems that the role of the media in disordered eating attitudes is noteworthy [1,11,39].
  See more at the national library of medicine, or https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6861923/

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Cutting up the Dadaists My favorite of all the Dada works was “Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany” by Hannah Höch. Drawing inspiration from this, I knew I wanted to use an assortment of images to critique a part of our society, and so I first started by considering who embodies the modern bourgeois. I took the most “bougie” person many would think of, Kim Kardashian. I then cut her up, per Dada-style, to comment on such celebritie's fake nature and materialism and in turn critique the unsatisfaction we put on ourselves from such idolization.

There is more of a political critique of the money and power at play in some corners, as well as the signifier “copy past” (upper right). This specifically is aimed to comment on the replicability of such a figure, similar to Andy Warhol's “Marilyn Diptych,” (often considered a Neo-Dadaist himself), as he comments on how Marilyn Monroe was a product made for society, and one that can be continually remade, seen in the case of Kim's family raising to fame. I used more “loud-mouthed” aspects, like a bloody font, which I found to go well with the critique on the effect that such a figure has when society sees her as an idol (people are willing to literally cut themselves). The greater aim of this collage was to replecate the Dadaist method of using the form of creation, cutting, in the nature of the argument. Overall, these aspects culminate to make a social and political statement that ideologically and structurally embodies the work of the Dadaists.

Click on image to see more of its parts.

Both image projects do well in proposing a critique to some part of society, but in moving forward with exploring the Languages of Digital Media, my Video Remix serves to incorporate Gunther Kress's argument (1999), that “in times of sweeping technological change, critique is not a prime academic activity; critique is still necessary, but scholars must do more than simply act as critics.”
While choosing a more playful tone, this Digital Argument has a clear call to action. Similar to both the work of the Dadaists and the Vertical Cinema Manifesto (which this video primarily draws inspiration from) is that while the tone is playful, the piece can still do serious work, both in drawing attention to a major issue and presenting an argument of what the viewer should change in their behavior. Like the Vertical Cinema Manifesto, the topic used (in this case, food photos) serves as a mechanism to talk about larger social problems (this time materialism and social media), and uses the tone to retain attention and effectively communicate the creator's argument.

Kress, Gunther. 1999. "English at the Crossroads: Rethinking Curricula of
Communication in the Context of a Turn to the Visual." In Passion, Pedagogies, and
21st Century Technologies, edited by Cynthia Selfe and Gail Hawisher, 66–88. Logan:
Utah Valley State Press.