Flickr and the Culture of Connectivity: Sharing views, experiences, memories - by Jose van Dijck

Van Dijck uses one of the biggest photo sharing websites Flickr as an example to demonstrate the 'Culture of Connectivity' in todays society.
Flickr allows constant interaction between users, dynamic exchange of images and has a constant stream of added pictures. Users are able to upload images through multiple means such as by email, mobile phone or straight from a digital camera connected to the internet. Users can then comment on each other's photos, join groups of the same interests, search for certain photos using tags, and vote their favourite photos.
The site aims to create 'collective perspectives', but what is collectivity and how has the mediated world affected this?

"Individuals articulate their identities as social beings by uploading photographs to document their lives; they appear to become part of a social community through photographic exchanges and this, in turn, shapes how they watch the world" (Van Dijck, 2011).
In this reading, Van Dijck looks at digital platforms such as Flickr and questions how appropriate the term 'collective' is in relation to perspectives, experiences and memory.

Social media platforms such as Flickr are promoted as a 'collective effort' where users form relationships and establish communal experiences - thereby leading to collective memories. However the term 'collective memory' assumes that the individual and the collective are separate entities that are associated through mechanisms such as the media.

Hoskins, however, proposes 'networked memory' or 'contemporary memory' to label the concept of memory given technological advances. He suggests that there is a technological unconscious that leads to a co-evolution of memory and technology. This technological unconscious involves powerful, digital environments that operate unbeknownst to those using these environments and those affected by them.
Van Djick also outlines Hoskin's argument of connectivity vs collectivity. Generally speaking, collective memory means that people experience a connection between what happens in general and how they are involved as individuals. Whereas networked memory requires a new understanding where minds are intertwined. Therefore Hoskins announces the end of collective memory because the basis of future memory has been transformed. Instead, he proposes the term 'connectivity' as the meaning of memory has been reinvented by connectivity and intertwining shared memories.
Another aspect that makes up Hoskins argument of a contemporary memory is the concept of 'mediated memory'. Notions of place and time are usually related to the definition of a memory. However, as memories are becoming increasingly mediated due to the growing use of photo sharing platforms, the boundaries of present and past are no longer given.

Van Dijck's 'Culture of Connectivity' is defined as a networked culture where social interactions and cultural products are inseparably entangled in technological systems. As outlined by Hoskins, connections are made and social media sites such as Flickr are an example of platforms that allow these to be constructed. Such platforms are embedded in a culture of connectivity where social networking sites are involved in our daily lives, where we may share photos or exchange memories of the past.