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Framing

2017-04-18 · letter vlog · John · 2:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

John argues that every video and social media feed is a framed, curated construction: telling the truth means choosing which true story to tell, public lives are self-portraiture rather than reality, and remembering that about himself may help him understand others.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A YouTube friend with OCD asks how John seems put together; the answer is editing, shown through his flubbed takes

  • ★★ A YouTube friend who also has OCD asked John how he seems so put together, while John was thinking the same thing about them. — 00:00:00 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John says the answer for both of them is editing: viewers hear his clean greeting, not the long run of flubbed takes before it. (playful) — 00:00:13

00:00:40 — Real but constructed: the frame, curated feeds, authenticity and two true stories about VidCon Europe

  • ★★★ John says the video is real (his real basement, really edited and uploaded) but inevitably a construction: he picks the frame, and a slightly moved frame would show mostly toys. — 00:00:40
  • ★★★ John says it is almost impossible to remember moment to moment that YouTube videos and social media feeds show curated versions of people. — 00:00:55 · YouTube

  • ★★★ John says the YouTube age talks a lot about authenticity and he has tried to be authentic for a decade, but telling the truth means choosing which of many true stories to tell. — 00:01:04 · YouTube

    “in telling the truth, you choose among many true stories which true story to tell”

  • ★★ First true story: last week (April 2017) John went to VidCon Europe in Amsterdam, and it was awesome and amazing; he had a very good time. — 00:01:17 · Amsterdam

  • ★★★ Second true story: John was infuriated with himself that he could not do a signing at VidCon Europe because of the problems he has in his brain. — 00:01:23

00:01:29 — Sontag on FSA photographers; videos and feeds as self-portraiture; an image is not the thing itself

  • ★★ John cites Sontag's On Photography: 1930s Farm Security Administration photographers took dozens of pictures of sharecroppers until one matched their own notions about poverty, dignity and exploitation. — 00:01:29
  • ★★★ John says making videos, even ones without your face, is often a kind of self-portraiture, as are your Twitter and Facebook: it is you, but framed. — 00:01:50 · Twitter, Facebook
  • ★★ John says images are incredibly compelling, as when a film adaptation replaces the characters we imagined while reading, but an image is not the thing itself. — 00:01:59
  • ★★★ Invoking 'This is not a pipe', John says this is his life but not all of it, and if he remembers that about himself, maybe he can understand it about other people. (hedged) — 00:02:14 · perspective-taking

00:02:22 — Pointer to John's 100 Days video about his OCD

  • ★★ John points viewers to a video on the 100 Days channel where he talks about his OCD in much more detail, linked below. — 00:02:22 · 100 Days

00:02:29 — Closing: someone framed the Instagram photo you envy; sign-off

  • ★★★ John asks viewers to remember, when they envy an Instagram photo, that somebody framed that shot, as we all frame our lives. — 00:02:29 · Instagram

    “As indeed, we are all framing our lives.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: self-portrait · YouTube

Also: People: Susan Sontag

Projects: 100 Days · VidCon Europe

Works: On Photography · The Treachery of Images

Organizations: Facebook · Farm Security Administration · Instagram · Twitter

Concepts: authenticity · film adaptation · obsessive-compulsive disorder · perspective-taking

Places: Amsterdam

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