COM 3060
November 22, 2016
Art and Mechanical Reproduction in the Age of Instagram
Social media has changed the way people communicate, discover and spend their leisure time. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, were originally developed as communicative platforms where people could network and keep in touch with loved ones. However, with the advent of Instagram and the popularization of memes, users are now able to exchange thoughts and ideas with the usage of minimal words. In Benjamin 's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he discusses how technology has changed the rhetoric around art. While Benjamin critiques this reproducibility of cultural commodities, as well as the aestheticism of politics, …show more content…
He states that “since, moreover, individuals are tempted to avoid such tasks, art will tackle the most difficult and most important ones where it is able to mobilize the masses”. Masses create a diverse contribution to art. Benjamin feels that people look at art with distraction, rather than concentration (or being immersed in the commodity itself), as he felt art was originally intended to do. Today, we understand mass mobilization as the process of or ability to engage and motivate a group of people by raising awareness of particular issues and bringing about …show more content…
We see this most recently with the #notmypresident movement. Living in an information age, people have instant access to unlimited amounts of information about world events or social injustices going on around us. The consumption of this data often leads to strong opinions being formed, and on Instagram this data is not only readily available, but people are free to interpret and express their opinions. “I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images”, here Benjamin is referring to a synonymous concept that in his time was brought about through film. Being exposed to millions of images or “moving images”, within the matter of minutes, means that one is subject to thousands of other people’s emotions and perceptions, in which, subconsciously shape their own, just by the mere consumption of this “art”. Even though Benjamin speaks of distractions, he doesn’t view this as something innately negative. In this case, the distractions that Instagram provides through its artistic content help raise