Blog 3: The Making of Place

The Making of Place

Image 1: creating yourself

The first name I gave myself on Instagram did not say much about me; it was a simple combination of my first name and my middle name. This was probably the result of me lacking in creativity at the time. I have changed my username a couple of times since first joining due to personal jokes with other people or simply becoming bored with the name I have. On Instagram it is quite simple to change your username and your name at any time that you like. “Naming is power- the creative power to call something into being, to render the invisible visible, to impart a certain character to things” (Tuan 688). This makes it easier for people to create a different virtual identity to the identity they have in the physical world. Having a catchy Instagram name is one of the key components to becoming Instagram famous. Four ways to become Instagram famous highlights the other key components. 

On my virtual network I do not make many posts and when I do they are just little snippets of myself e.g. a new light I got, a movie I am watching or a picture of a new pug picture I have come across. The pictures show a little view of who I am as a person, certain things that I like and little characteristics that I have. I believe many people only post pictures of what they want other people to see and therefore what they want other people to think of them. Instagram reflects a form of the concept ‘cultural capital’ that theorist Pierre Bourdieu suggests due to people having the right to speak and post what they like with little restriction. People lacking in cultural capital would not have the correct technology to use the network in the first place. 

References:

Tuan, Y. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696.

Image credit: 

Image 1: Fun Elf, retrieved 29/08/13 from http://www.funelf.net/photos/Creating-Yourself.jpg