Summary:

There are three Distinct Modes of self representation in digital media: written, visual, and quantitative. In 1954, Parmigianino painted his self portrait using only oil paints. He used a half wooden ball to mimic the shape of the mirror, which he copied his reflection from. Parmigianino used a convex mirror  to see himself; where today we use digital technology to be able to see ones self. This technology allows us to take and post pictures, write blogs and even connect with others. We also wear technology that gives us feedback on yourself in charts, graphs, and maps. Whether its wearable, networked step-counter or a convex mirror and oil paints, technology reflects back to us who we are. Self-representation has always been apart of our culture, we’ve drawn, carved, sculpted and painted images. Sometimes we use the technology to help us see ourselves better, understand ourselves or even help improve ourselves. We now have to ability to save large amounts of photos and pass them down to generations. The use of self-representation online began in text with images and some sounds being added, graphical browsers were introduced. The visual mode has grown due to the creation of smart phones with cameras and fast broadband connections. The quantitative mode represents the wearable devices and other easy tracking devices The process of writing of oneself was rare until the late 18th century, in the western tradition, a diary writing began with spiritual and religious self examination, ages ago writing was rare because paper was expensive and until the last 200 years people also couldn’t read or write. As the 16th century headed towards the end paper became cheaper and people learned how to read and write correctly, leading to the 18th century where  diaries became common. By late 18th century diaries were common in both everyday life and in friction, there was many novels written in a form of a diary. Heehs argues many used diaries as a way of confessing their sins directly to god, both Heehs and Serfaty argued that protestants in particular, writing about self as a method for self  improvement was apart of catholic tradition.  Samuel Pepys diary is one of the first and best known early secular diaries, the diary offers much self-examination as the puritans, but less anguish. In the 18th century artist self portraits became a fashionable collections item, towards the end of the 20th century artist used their bodies in their art. Selfies today are treated way different, they’re rarely exhibited in Art galleries, instead shared with family and friends. Blogging has always been around , Benjamin Franklin was a self-tracker, he wrote about how he tried to become a better person. The are numerous types of blogging styles such as filter blogs and personal blogs, filter blogs have a very personal style but aim to share material and ideas. Personal blogs and online diaries are more unequivocally self representation.

Main Idea:

The main idea of this article/chapter is to explain the three different modes of self representation and how they were use from years ago to now.

Key Terms:

Autobiographies- an account of a person’s life written by that person.

Distinct- recognizably different in nature from something else of a similar type.

Self-representation- , a person may wish to represent himself, or proceed pro se.

Quantitative- relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.

Making Connections:

You can somewhat make a connection on how selfies and paints are view today, but it a bit reversed now. Back then paints began to become common so they were less interesting then once selfies started they were a big thing in society. Now it is very different, selfies are a very common thing in everyday life and when we see a good or old painting it is very uncommon and is more interesting now.