An experiment takes place to prove a hypothesis. The case in question concerning whether the medium is the message. Namely a social media experiment. Having been on social media for the past two decades then it always occurred to my mind that certain mediums upon it suit particular outlets. Never was this more evident, when, as a musician, I crossed the digital sea from MySpace to Facebook in 2008. MySpace had been a thriving outlet for artistic people of all kinds; musicians, writers, photographers, painters, actors, etc. The crossover to Facebook inverted all of this when it became about personality first, with vocation secondary.The beneficial side of this was that friendships became important too. Gossip chambers became the norm, particularly as my time as a businessman in The Marilyn Monroe World coincided with this and also a crossover happened with a group from an online church. Though, with gossip, hasn't that been the case since the novels of Jane Austin (Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility), and before that, St Paul's warnings about it (Titus 2:3, 1 Timothy 3:11, 2 Timothy 3:31)?
Well, to the experiment. This concerned combining reality video with film storyboarding. The iphone allows for this in the current age with its ability to replace the old way of paper, pens and pencils in enabling this. On Facebook the reaction might be a 'like' or two and a handful of views [you do not seek to make your friends your audience if you want to keep them; sharing your interests maybe]. When this method was applied to Tik Tok then the number of views started to get towards the two-thousand mark. The method of posting was more amenable to a younger demographic who valued a person's creativity before personal attributes or opinions. The gauging of this results in the medium being more important than content. Therefore, Facebook will be based on personality, X (Twitter) on sociological viewpoints ie politics; while the other sites like Tik Tok and Instagram will hinge on creative content.
Of course this is a relative experiment, qualitative in medium analysis, although quantitative in terms of the actual response results. It can be seen clearly that social media is complex in how it operates, with the spectrum veering between intimate friendship grown over years online, and then freewheeler posting which reaches out in a wider consciousness. This can be seen as positive in the sense that with use of the various mediums then it is possible to grow friendships online, without giving up the need for wider creative expression with an audience. The iphone film used within the experiment 'Mysterious Beings' is posted below this hypothesis.
Alan Ewing, MSc, BA (Hons), Cert HE
