_blank
McKayla Lankau
Social media is a huge part of people’s lives today. This is especially true for younger generations using apps like Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, among others. It is a wonderful resource that is often used to share documentation of society’s most pressing issues.
However, these platforms are impacting social change in ways beyond how they were initially designed. Endless scrolling makes it easy to quickly pass what’s important. The overload of drastically different types of content makes it hard to focus on one at a time. The mere placement of banal pop culture in the same space as meaningful information dilutes the gravity of it. This is how we become desensitized. These platforms intend to keep our attention for as long as possible, and they profit from preventing focused action. The more we scroll, the more money they make.
_blank is a digital experience that contributes to this contemporary conversation about social media consumption. The editorial website was made with video editing, animations, and interactive features. It uses the viewer’s webcam to place their own live video in the space. It also exhibits documentation of a complementary physical installation.
The _blank experience ultimately suggests to the audience that they need to be mindful of their online habits and relationships to technology. Over-stimulation leads to overwhelm, and sometimes it’s better to do nothing than to do nothing on your phone.