{"id":21571,"date":"2016-09-12T09:07:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T13:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=21571"},"modified":"2016-09-12T09:11:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T13:11:17","slug":"grief-hype-jacking-and-saturation-fatigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2016\/09\/12\/grief-hype-jacking-and-saturation-fatigue\/","title":{"rendered":"Grief hype-jacking and Saturation fatigue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thoughtsandprayers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A terror attack takes place.
\nA large protest breaks out.
\nA natural disaster occurs.
\nA prominent public figure dies.<\/p>\n

In the earliest minutes, while news networks are scrambling to give the event a name, vernacular users on Instagram offer a flurry of hashtagged tributes with text post prayers, stock photography, and artful homages.<\/p>\n

Soon, a primary hashtag and emblem for the event emerges: The yellow umbrella for #OccupyCentral, the Monumen Nasional for #KamiTidakTakut, the Eiffel Tower for #PorteOuverte, silhouettes of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew for #PrayForLKY.<\/p>\n

Yet, alongside these consolations are Instagram users who attempt to appropriate the attention current of these trending channels for self-publicity, flooding dedicated hashtags with scarcely relevant selfies, outfit of the day shots, wares for sale, and redirected links.<\/p>\n

How do we make sense of this?<\/p>\n

It’s been an agonising series of weeks after a string of grievous events\u00a0in various parts of the world. I have been\u00a0tracing vernacular responses to global grieving events on Instagram since 2014, and some of the case studies are archived here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, of late, global tributes on trending hashtags have been featuring a more prominent disdain for, rejection of, and critique on\u00a0public grieving in memes and “thoughts & prayers” en masse.<\/p>\n

In this post, I trace the various global grieving hashtags on Instagram and mull over the presentation\u00a0of grief in public digital spaces.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

A \u201cgrief aesthetic\u201d on Instagram<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my on-going project tracking the earliest vernacular reactions to global grieving moments (i.e. #OccupyCentral<\/a>, #CharlieHedbo<\/a>, #PrayForLKY<\/a>, #PorteOuverte<\/a>, #KimaTidakTakut<\/a>) o<\/em>n Instagram, I developed a register of visual tropes most viable for social media virality during social movements, or what I term a \u201cgrief aesthetic\u201d on Instagram.<\/p>\n

These \u201cpublic grieving\u201d elements comprise:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) An iconic visual symbol<\/strong> with cultural significance to the grief event, such as a national landmark or an instrument signifying victims or perpetrators. These may be illustrations, photographs, or various art forms (i.e. the Eiffel Tower for #PorteOuverte, the pencil for #CharlieHedbo, silhouettes of Mr Lee Kuan Yew for #PrayForLKY, national flag for #KimaTidakTakut).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

2) An iconic image\/scene from \u201cthe ground\u201d<\/strong> that captures the essence of the movement, such as a prominent victim or perpetrator photographed in action, or a group of actors performing a powerful gesture (i.e. hands raised in surrender for #OccupyCentral, snaking queues to pay last respects for #PrayForLKY).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

3) Emblems borrowed from a lexicon of political statements<\/strong> and redesigned for the event (i.e. the yellow ribbon for #OccupyCentral, the peace symbol incorporating Monumen Nasional for #KimaTidakTakut<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

4) #PrayForX<\/strong> typesetting in various artistic fonts and illustrations, usually printed on a plain coloured background or superimposed onto a background image of iconic landmarks, scenes, or scenery.<\/span><\/p>\n

5) Keep Calm and X<\/strong> advice typesetting in various fonts and illustrations, usually appealing to the power (i.e. Keep Calm and Pray for Paris)<\/em> of prayer, or an often risky and ill-timed comedic relief (i.e. Keep Calm and Eat Baguettes).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

6) Emblems borrowed from popular culture<\/strong> and repurposed for the event (i.e. Where\u2019s Charlie comic for #CharlieHedbo, Guy Fawks mask for #OccupyCentral).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

7) Images of event-specific paraphernalia<\/strong> peddled to users (i.e. yellow ribbons for #OccupyCentral, silhouette artwork for #PrayForLKY).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

8) Screengrabs of event-related news updates<\/strong>, usually cross-posted from other social media such as Twitter and Facebook, or mainstream television.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Grief hype-jacking<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the elements of \u201cgrief aesthetic\u201d on Instagram have emerged as vernacular norms of acceptable \u201cpublic grieving\u201d visibility practices, some users tap into this global current of attention in less palatable ways. <\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cpublic grieving\u201d<\/strong>, users sincerely partake in a global expression, narrative, and dialogue of a grief event through the use of high visibility trending hashtags. <\/span>In \u201cpublicity grieving\u201d<\/strong>, users opportunistically harness the attention currency of high visibility trending hashtags to promote their brand and wares. I term this phenomenon of bandwagoning on public tributes and high visibility hashtags \u201cgrief hype-jacking\u201d<\/strong>, as users wrestle to misappropriate highly public channels of collective grief for self-publicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although many users who \u201cgrief hype-jack\u201d are ordinary everyday Instagrammers, microcelebrity (Senft 2008<\/a>) Influencers and celebrities tend to be the most prolific since their craft is premised on a firm command of the attention economy (Goldhaber 1997)<\/a>. Influencers are shapers of public opinion who persuade their audience through the conscientious calibration of personae on \u201cdigital\u201d media such as social media, supported by \u201cphysical\u201d space interactions with their followers in the flesh (Abidin 2015<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The attraction and mystique of Influencers is largely premised on their ordinary, mundane, everydayness. However, personal failures, grim self-reflections, and public performances of grief are often re-narrativised and hyper-visibilised alongside their highlight reel of self-branded achievements to a watchful, responsive audience as a self-conscious display of vulnerability. In other words, while Influencers may experience genuine sorrow and grief, many of them conscientiously curate the outward expression of such grief to fish for empathy, relatability (Abidin 2015<\/a>), and publicity. More crucially, as Influencers and celebrities the wares being hawked are often the self-as-brand per se, chiefly represented by such users\u2019 Instagram feeds.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Davenport & Beck (2001) <\/a>developed three pairs of attention parameters: \u201cvoluntary\u201d and \u201ccaptive\u201d, wherein one gives attention out of choice or not; \u201cattractive\u201d and \u201caversive\u201d, wherein one gives attention for gains or to avoid loss; and \u201cfront-of-mind\u201d and \u201cback-of-mind\u201d, wherein one gives attention explicitly and consciously or out of a familiar muscle memory. On a regular basis, Influencers command a passive form of voluntary, attractive, and back-of-mind attention from their stable stream of followers. However, Influencers may engage in spectacle-like practices to generate an active form of captive, aversive, and front-of-mind attention to recapture the foci of existing followers and attract new ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Publicity grieving<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

In recent times, Influencers and celebrities are practicing \u201cgrief hype-jacking\u201d to different extents of success, in relation to public backlash<\/span>\u00a0from their followers or mainstream media. Having studied the Influencer industry since 2010 as an anthropologist, I observed\u00a0some\u00a0tropes\u00a0of publicity grieving practices. <\/span><\/p>\n

The elements of \u201cpublicity grieving\u201d often mobilized in \u201cgrief hype-jacking\u201d include:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Selfies and close-ups of dramatic crying<\/strong> or concentrated prayer in action, wherein the user is otherwise seemingly primed for the camera with carefully done hair and make-up. Followers have sarcastically called this out as \u201cglamorous crying\u201d or \u201cfake crying\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Outfit Of The Day<\/strong> or #OOTD images, in which the user poses for the camera in fashionable clothing awkwardly juxtaposed against an unrelated outpour of grief and consolation in their caption. Here, it is clear that the main feature is one\u2019s outfit and self-as-brand, and the misalignment of image and caption has been called out by followers as \u201cattention whoring\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Photographs of the user at a landmark of scenic place relating to the grief event<\/strong>, usually from a past travel<\/strong>. Users often overstate a personal connection to the event or place by emphasizing just how recently they had visited (i.e. \u201cit\u2019s been two years but it feels just like yesterday\u201d)<\/em>, how geographically close they had been to the site of grief (i.e. \u201cI can\u2019t believe we stayed just three blocks from this place\u201d)<\/em>, the (arbitrary) emotional ties they feel to the place (i.e. \u201cI have always enjoyed the country\u201d)<\/em>, and how they share equal rights in the vulnerability of current victims and grievers (i.e. \u201cif this happened when I was there, I could have died\u201d)<\/em>. Followers have called out such practices as \u201criding a trend\u201d and being \u201cnarcissistic\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

4) Photographs of the landmark or a scenic place relating to the grief event, usually copied and reposted<\/strong> from other sources unrelated to the user themselves. Users often have not personally visited the place, but re-gram photographs taken by (semi-)professional photographers on Flickr, Pinterest, or Instagram and insert captions of consolation and grief clouded in the rhetoric of authenticating practices. These authenticating practices serve to create and convey a user\u2019s personal connection to the place, where there was previously none, through the admission of romanticizing grief (i.e. \u201ceveryone\u2019s recent tributes from their travels made me wish I had visited before the incident\u201d),<\/em> aspirational travel plans (i.e. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to visit this place\u201d)<\/em>, and superimposed empathy (i.e. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine if this happened to my own country\u201d).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

5) Overt advertisements of products and services<\/strong> on offer, usually accompanied by redirected URLs, user handles, or sponsored hashtags in the caption. These spam-like posts are the most cluttering of the \u201cpublicity grieving\u201d practices, and are least used by Influencers and celebrities for whom the impression of being \u201chard sell\u201d is fervently avoided (Abidin & Ots 2015<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

#thoughtsandprayers<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evidently, there is a\u00a0shift from \u201cpublic grieving\u201d to \u201cpublicity grieving\u201d alongside the proliferation of “grief hype-jacking”.\u00a0While the \u201cgrief aesthetic\u201d elements on Instagram have emerged as vernacular norms of acceptable \u201cpublic grieving\u201d visibility practices, some users tap into this global current of attention in less palatable ways.\u00a0Perhaps it is for this reason that the backlash against #PrayForX and #thoughtsandprayers memes has been growing.<\/p>\n

How are ordinary users on Instagram responding to this?<\/p>\n

To find out, I trace the #thoughtsandprayers hashtag on Instagram and the content posted for a ten-day period between 10 July 2016 and 19 July 2016.<\/p>\n

Saturation fatigue<\/strong> regarding the newest onslaught of passive “internet solidarity” and satirical remixes<\/strong> of #thoughtsandprayers were displayed in brilliant comics.<\/p>\n