Interviews

There are three sections here: an interview with DVC art professor Nicole White, an interview with my personal mentor/former teacher Iris, and a survey I disseminated to the class.

Interview 1: Nicole White

Nicole White is an Art & Photography professor at DVC. As of writing I had not taken any art classes at DVC yet, so I went off Mr. Fischer's recommendation - and I'm glad I did!

First we discussed Nicole's professional and personal work, both of which primarily concern her artistic passion of photography. In addition to her own photography, she said she loves looking at photography and spending time deeply thinking about individual photos - an experience she said has drastically changed due to the advent of social media platforms which inundate us with endless amounts of images. Social media has also led to some artists trying to imitate popular "aesthetics" instead of challenging themselves with creative innovation; furthermore, a lot of artists have changed their own work in order to appeal to social media algorithms, an issue not present a few decades ago when galleries were the main destination for art. She encouraged people to delve deeper into thinking about works of art rather than accepting algorithmic consumerism.

Interview 2: Iris

Iris was briefly my teacher when I was a kid and has since been a mentor sort of figure to me. I value her perspective as someone older and wiser.

As an older woman, she has a different perspective than most people my age. When asked how she would define "content", she endorsed the more classical meaning of what something contains (e.g. "the contents of a soup can") and was somewhat unfamiliar with the modern usage I explored for this project. On "consuming media" she said "I don't feel like I consume it; I'm exposed to it, and then I may have a reaction to it," and suggested the word "acquire" instead. However, she emphasized that definitions are constantly changing and that social media affects even people who don't use it.

Survey

20 students from English 126 responded to my survey. These are the demographic findings:

  • DVC Majors: Business was the most common major with 5 responses. There were also 2 film majors and 2 nursing majors, but other than that there was no pattern to the responses.
  • Social Media Usage: 16 respondents (80%) used Instagram, 9 (45%) used Twitter/X, 8 (40%) used Tiktok. Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube (as an active participant rather than mere viewer) were each used by 6 respondents (30%). Only 2 respondents (10%) used Tumblr, and only 1 (5%) reported "none of the above".
  • Creative Hobbies: 8 respondents (40%) reported "none of the above"; only 1 used the "other" write-in option, for woodworking/carpentry and keeping a nature journal. A further 8 respondents selected photography as a hobby, followed by 5 endorsing drawing/painting, 4 for creative writing, and 3 each for sculpting/ceramics and music (singing/songwriting/instrument). No respondents selected fiber arts (sewing/knitting/crocheting/embroidery) which honestly surprised me.

As for the three open-ended questions, responses were by nature difficult to quantify, but I've done my best to summarize here:

  • "What is your favorite work of fiction or art? (book, movie, show, song, etc.) Feel free to describe why if you'd like." A few respondents seemingly misunderstood and just said "movies" or "music" rather than naming a specific work, but other than that, responses were heartfelt and wide-ranging, from recent cinema like Dune 2 to modern art like Warhol to a Russian rock band I had previously never heard of called Kino. The longest response, at over 150 words, detailed the respondent's reason for loving the Xdinary Heroes song Dreaming Girl; most others were fairly brief.
  • "What three words would you use to describe the experience of reading/watching/listening to/etc. that work?" Most respondents used positive and/or emotive adjectives, such as "Immersive, broadening, creative" or "Captivating, eccentric, melancholy". I got the impression most felt strongly about what they were describing, rather than a passive/indifferent "consumption" experience.
  • "What do you think the phrase "content consumption" implies?" This was by far the most misunderstood question, with about a third of responses simply rephrasing e.g. "the consumption of digital content" or "The amount of media I consume regularly". I'm unsure how much of this could have been averted by making the question phrasing more detailed or specific. However, several responses provided helpful insight, several of which are quoted on the "consume" page. Here's another: "I beleive it is how we, the audiance comprehends and react to certain information given to us. How we interpret it, really."