Check out this Wired article, Clive Thompson on Secret Messages in the Digital Age. It explores how teens often encode messages within messages posted on social network(ing) websites. danah boyd calls this act social steganography. Social steganography is one example of how people negotiate their relationship with digital media.
An excerpt: "Obviously, one could regard the emergence of youth steganography as yet more depressing evidence of how dangerously overcomplex the web has made teens’ lives. But frankly, I’m kind of awed by the rhetorical sophistication of today’s teens. They are basically required to live in public (you try maintaining friendships without an online presence), but they crave some privacy, too. So they’ve taught themselves to hack language. They hack systems, as well: Boyd has also found teenagers who “deactivate” their Facebook account when they log off so nobody can see their stuff or post comments. Then they “reactivate” it when they want to go back online and interact with friends. Presto: They create a virtual club where they control the operating hours. Color me impressed."
What is your opinion of social steganography? Is it real? Relevant?
Social stenography is definitely relevant and I see it all the time. In fact, you could say that I do it myself to a point. I am friends with a lot of my older family members on Facebook, making it difficult to post statuses like "partying" or things like that. So instead I might post a funny quote that one of my friends said pertaining to said party, or song lyrics that are relevant to the situation. Its not unlikely for many teens to do this, and in my opinion its genius. We are finding ways to build our own firewalls in a sense, making it so that whoever we do not want to know, wont. I've really never thought about it in such innovative terms, but it really is sort of amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is necessarily stenography in an evolved sense. True, some youth use quotes to convey meaning inside meaning, but only if you're "in" on it do you get the reference. Isn't that similar to an inside joke? And the use of quotes in regards to break up- that has been around since before our parents knew what myspace was. I think that particular example says more about our relationship to music as a medium through which to express and identify ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAl & Al, Remember that is it steganography and not stenography! Thanks for weighing in. It does make me think of a question that has come up in class a number of times :What is new about new media? What's actually changed? Inside jokes and using common cultural markers is a practice I think we all grew up with and continues today in new social spaces.
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