# data[].attributes.body
This article discusses how youths are socially engaged through their political participation on Tumblr.

Given the platform's interface - ease of sharing and reposting different media, Tumblr has "created new opportunities for engagement". Moreover, Tumblr, vis-a-vis other online platforms, offers youths more flexibility in curating their identity; giving them more freedom to participate in causes they are genuinely more interested in. However, whether such online activism translates into real life political participation is uncertain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"You can create your own identity via Tumblr," said Moya Bailey, 31, a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University in women's studies and digital humanities. "I see many more diverse images on Tumblr than I see anywhere else. It's one of the few places where I see fat people, trans women and trans women of color who are celebrated."

The cyber social-justice movement is always brewing on Tumblr, and it picks up steam when shocking news hits the country or when protests take place offline. On Dec. 4, when a jury decided not to indict in the Eric Garner case, Tumblr experienced what Liba Rubenstein, director of social impact and public policy at Tumblr, called "extreme peaks" in the use of the "social justice" and "black lives matter" tags.

"Tumblr is kind of like a gateway drug for activism," said Philip Howard, 44, the principal investigator at the Digital Activism Research Project at the University of Washington. "Once you connect to other people who feel strongly about race or crime or gay marriage, you stay engaged on that one issue area."

Because Tumblr allows users to post anything from a video to a Tweet, and because reblogging a post is as easy as two clicks, Tumblr is an ideal dumping ground for media that might not easily coexist on Facebook or Twitter. "So much of activism is driven by digital artifacts like a video or a photo of someone beaten up by cops, and Tumblr helps people post and repost these," Mr. Howard said.

The platform's capacity to spread messages quickly is key, said Kim Moore, 29, creator of Soul Revision. Ms. Moore turned to Tumblr to raise awareness of social issues. "I thought this would be a good place to branch out more," she said. "I went on Tumblr and never left."

Mwende Katwiwa, 23, creator of the FreeQuency Frequently Writes Tumblr and a community organizer offline, thinks Tumblr has helped create new opportunities for engagement. "The last national movement in the black community didn't have access to social media like this," Ms. Katwiwa said. "Without those retweets and reposts, we wouldn't still be talking about Trayvon Martin."

Ms. Bailey said that many people describe what they do on Tumblr as getting an education on topics that aren't explored deeply in standard school textbooks, like African-American history or colonialism. Similarly, Mr. Howard, whose Research Project devotes time to measuring the success of digital movements, said that while many online campaigns don't force changes in public policy, they keep stories in the news and help expose people to new sources of information.

But whether passion on Tumblr translates into participation in the real world is up for debate. Ms. Katwiwa described a time when she used Tumblr to promote a protest in New Orleans. She was disappointed when of the thousand or so people who promised to show up, only 400 materialized. "One fault of social media is that it has people thinking that's all you have to do," she said. "I think it's a tool in a toolbox. It should be used in conjunction with ground-level activism."

Ms. Moore, on the other hand, recalled organizing a moment of silence in San Diego after Michael Brown was killed. Nearly 400 people attended the event - a number that's large for the small and conservative San Diego, Ms. Moore said - and many others followed up with emails asking to participate in the future. "I was blown away at how engaged and how passionate people can be on Tumblr," she said.

An emotionally difficult downside of using Tumblr is the negative responses activists receive from commenters. As part of her thesis project at Wayne State University, Amanda Levitt, 29, creator of Fat Body Politics, collected disparaging comments from a blog she moderates, This Is Thin Privilege.

She saved a total of 4,200 negative comments, some of them suggesting she should die. There were points at which the messages overwhelmed Ms. Levitt and she took breaks from using the platform, but she always returned. "A lot of people I enjoy talking with are online so it's hard not being in that space," she said.

Mr. Thomas shares the sentiment. "Activists online deal with a lot of hate and death threats, and very vicious attacks," he said. "It's something a lot of us have to try to ignore. And it's still worth it."

While online attacks may be unpleasant, Mr. Howard suggested that they are a part of contemporary political engagement and can help activists develop a psychological armor. "We all make mistakes with whatever media is new to us," he said. "It's part of contemporary growing pains. Each generation has had to learn what activism means for them."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Millennials and the Age of Tumblr Activism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"You can create your own identity via Tumblr," said Moya Bailey, 31, a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University in women's studies and digital humanities. "I see many more diverse images on Tumblr than I see anywhere else. It's one of the few places where I see fat people, trans women and trans women of color who are celebrated."

# data[].attributes.body
Interesting article that shows the similarities between digital marketing and digital activism; in terms of their theoretical underpinnings and objectives. In doing so, it highlights the capitalistic nature of digital activism in contemporary society.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Internet Age has given millennials unlimited access to information and it has inevitably changed society in an accelerated fashion. Considering that, the world wide web has led to everything from changes in social behavior to digital marketing jobs. Ironically, those are one in the same when it comes to social change.

Even though the protests and marches are filled with young adults, #blacklivesmatter was used on Twitter 92,784 over the four hours following the Darren Wilson verdict. There's impact in millennial activism; but, at its core, it's about growing awareness in a way to influence the action of many, i.e digital marketing.

Using content and social communities to grow a brand or support a cause is the essence of digital marketing and it has become the epitome of how millennials ignite social change. Though we must not confuse awareness with action, or in digital marketing terms: conversion.

I'm encouraging us to make change not chatter.

The Internet shouldn't be the finish line, rather a catalyst to promote action for the greater good. Here's how it's been done to make social change.

Social media activism meets virality

Every hashtag is a campaign. Some of the biggest social impact has come from viral content through social channels. It was almost impossible to miss 2014's #icebucketchallenge - the hashtag created to raise money and awareness for ALS. The campaign challenged people to pour a bucket of freezing water over one's head.

The hashtag led to over 2.4 million videos shared on Facebook and 2.2 million mentions on Twitter, with an immense amount of celebrity participation. That online support translated into more than $88.5 million in donations.

That is just one example of how building awareness through Facebook and Twitter can be partnered with charity to create tangible change towards a notable cause.

Building an engaging audience

Social awareness is necessary but, much like digital marketing, society needs to influence action from the audience they're building. Early stage startups know, it's important to not only build buzz for your brand but also to sustain loyal engagement. It is no different when it comes to digital activism. Create ways for an audience to do more than spread the word, this could be a petition, connecting with influencers, or coordinating a larger mission outside of the web. I used content to drive conversation and push action when I created a short film using real news segments in Black Theory.

#Blacklivesmatter is an ongoing civil-rights movement that grew in abundance after the killing of Michael Brown. Over the past year, the social protest has seen engagement from high-profile political candidates, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also announced a new effort to improve its tracking of fatal police shootings. Chicago and Baltimore city officials fired their police chiefs during protests over police brutality and student protest have grown in prominence across the country.

Social change for millennials tends to come via the internet. But just like digital marketing, we must build an engaging audience that actively supports the brand. Let's not confuse activism with socialization. With the internet, it is completely necessary to raise social awareness, although awareness should be a byproduct of action, not a substitute. In an effort to make true social change, let's convert conversation and interest into impact.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Millennial Activism is Actually Digital Marketing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Internet Age has given millennials unlimited access to information and it has inevitably changed society in an accelerated fashion. Considering that, the world wide web has led to everything from changes in social behavior to digital marketing jobs. Ironically, those are one in the same when it comes to social change.

# data[].attributes.body
This article informs how feminists today are employing digital tools to organise and mobilise so as to facilitate collective action. The author, Franziska Grobke, is the co-founder of Level Up, "an organisation for feminists across the UK, focused on online campaigning"; of which, the organisation has crowdfunded over £50,000. Such support not only points to the success of digital activism, but also highlights the potential it holds for social change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Another week, another white male Conservative telling us what he thinks women should and should not do with our own bodies. Meanwhile, a recent report by Amnesty International investigating the extent of sexist and racist online abuse against women MPs highlighted a sad and troubling reality for women online.

These stories are just a few examples of a persistent problem about how our society views gender and the roles that people are expected to play within that. I frequently get told that 'women are equal now', and asked: do we still need feminism? Surely one look online shows that yes, yes we do - now more than ever.

We can dismiss the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg as silly for his antiquated views, but then look what happened when we dismissed that 'pussy-grabbing' president. As we make real progress on gender equality and rights, those same rights are increasingly at risk from those that see these changes as a threat to their world view.

That is why I got together with five campaigner friends to launch Level Up - a new organisation for feminists across the UK, focused on online campaigning. Level Up will build a community of people who want to tackle sexism in all its forms.

Digital tools

The internet has powered a new wave of feminist activism across the UK, and more and more women and girls in Britain consider themselves feminists and want to live in a fairer country.

Level Up will harness this energy: we'll use digital tools to build a community of hundreds of thousands of women, equip them with the tools to tackle sexism wherever they find it, and build a nurturing and supportive community of feminists that people can learn and grow in. By harnessing all of this feminist energy and channelling it into campaigning we can tackle all women's issues, and not just those that capture media headlines.

Feminists in the UK have won unprecedented legal and political rights for women over the past 100 years. The challenge for today's feminists is to take on the cultural and social structures that keep sexism alive and well in Britain today. These structures mean that nearly a hundred years after the first British women won the right to vote, we still make up just 32 per cent of MPs. They mean that a quarter of British women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

When I was growing up, I knew about sexism and even feminism, but I didn't really get how it applied to me. I just thought that things were 'like that'. Whether it's enduring street harassment and cat-calling ('just ignore them, I think it's meant to be a compliment') or being forced to look at a man who exposed himself to me in the street because the police apparently had more pressing things to be dealing with, and 'come on, he's harmless, really'. I thought these were things that women just had to put up with, and if it bothered us it was our problem.

Social media solidarity

Years later, the rage finally set in. I was angry - furious - that these things were still happening. That men were raping women with impunity, that women were being passed over for promotions and getting paid less than men, that two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner. And most of all, I was annoyed with myself that I had let some men get away with some of these things because I didn't say anything. Because I didn't know that I could.

The support and solidarity I find among like-minded feminists online or in my circle of friends and activists is truly priceless. Social media has given us this amazing tool that not only lets us share outrage about something we've read or experienced, but also finds another person who totally gets why you're so outraged about it. In these communities, I don't get dismissed as another angry 'feminazi', or a 'killjoy' who can't take a 'joke'.

That solidarity and sharing is what allows us to channel that anger into something more constructive, because we know we're not alone. And we can learn from one another's experiences and points of view and grow stronger as feminists.

That's why I'm so excited about Level Up: because we're not just planning campaigns that challenge sexism, we'll be bringing feminists together and providing them with the support and sense of community they need to continue to fight sexism in our society.

We've already crowdfunded over £50,000 to help get Level Up off the ground. Now, we're about to hire our first campaigner and get properly stuck in - so watch this space!
Franziska Grobke is a co-founder of Level Up. You can sign up to hear more and get involved with Level Up here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Another week, another white male Conservative telling us what he thinks women should and should not do with our own bodies. Meanwhile, a recent report by Amnesty International investigating the extent of sexist and racist online abuse against women MPs highlighted a sad and troubling reality for women online.

# data[].attributes.body
This short clip features The Everyday Sexism Project, a platform for women to document their experiences of sexism. The clip highlights how contemporary feminists are going online to spread awareness; alluding to the potential of new media to facilitate real-time sharing of experiences.

1. Democracy of modern feminism: "Modern feminism reflects modern society. Criticism of previous waves of the movement was that the voice of feminism was often white, well- off and academic."
2. Challenge that modern feminism faces: "Visual exploitation of women goes hand in hand with the digital age - modern feminists' biggest battle."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fi Glover meets some of the new breed of contemporary feminists harnessing technology to further their cause.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With the recent women's march being declared a resounding success by feminist activists across the globe, we can draw at least one big conclusions: digital feminist activism, when done well, can be translated into offline, boots-on-the-ground style campaigns. But with the knowledge that we can make a difference in both online and offline settings, we also need to ask that all-important question: what's next? In the face of a rise in online alt-right thought, and trolling and online harassment, how can feminists leverage digital activism to create positive and long-lasting change? In short, there are two answers here: the inward looking, self-reflective one, and the more outward looking, change-based one.

The first answer - the inward looking one - requires us, as feminists, to critically reflect how we enforce and value intersectionality online. Are we using it to educate, or to chastise?

Intersectionality is a term that's constantly thrown around at events, in publications, or across mission statements. But a thousand mission statements amount to nothing if the organisation, publication or activist network in question doesn't seek out and consider the voices of trans women, women of colour, women with disabilities, and women of all sexualities outside of 'straight'.

This is one of the most important elements of digital feminism: it has an ability to bring to the fore the experiences of women from all backgrounds. We can use online spaces to listen and learn, before we step in to say what we think. Some of the most powerful conversations I've seen online have been those that I haven't participated in - I've simply listened, and learned. It's not always my space or place to stand up and be heard: sometimes, it's time to shut up and listen. When we go about doing digital activism online, we need to ensure that we're listening as much as we are speaking. If you have access to the internet, you also have access to women's stories, voices, and experiences, and from this you can educate yourself, and seek out voices you may not otherwise have come across.

This brings me to my second point: the spaces and platforms we're using to make change happen. Five years after Women, Action and the Media launched their open letter to Facebook, trolling and harassment in online spaces are still a daily problem for feminists online. Facebook will happily wish us an International Women's Day, but it will just as cheerfully play host to countless pages where men share nude photos, contact details, and stories of assault of women. And in case this isn't enough to convince you of Facebook's seemingly blasé attitude towards women, there's also the company's "no nipple" policy, and last year's banning of a photo of the famous plus-size model Tess Holliday for being too fat. As much as these platforms play lip service to women across the globe, their policies and moderators are complacent in the very real harassment of feminist online.

To highlight the words of the inimitable Audre Lorde, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house". In the same way, the creations of white, cisgendered men may never be enough to meet the demands of an ever-growing feminist cohort. Zuckerberg wasn't considering the needs of feminists when he designed Facebook: he was thinking of college frat boys who wanted to get their rocks off. And the rules haven't changed; as feminists we're still operating in a relatively hostile environment, where the community guidelines are applied haphazardly, and without the safety of women and other marginalised groups being a priority.

To sit alongside platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, we need sites that are run for feminists, by feminists. The cyber-safety resources toolkits shared by Hackblossom and Feminist Frequency, the beginners-guide over at Finally Feminism, the advanced feminist collectives of Shakesville and Guerrilla Feminism, and the work of Take Back The Tech: each of these spaces is specifically designed for feminists of various creeds and beliefs. There are different rules and requirements for each community, but you can expect a lack of trolling and harassment by outsiders for your efforts. These spaces assist in dismantling patriarchal platforms from the outside: their tools, advice, and hacks can help make your time in more hostile online spaces easier and safer.

So, when we ask the question of what's next, the answer should be more feminist-friendly spaces, and further acts of intersectionality. We have the most information we have ever had access to at our fingertips - we should use this for education and positive change in spaces that welcome and prioritise our needs.
HuffPost UK is running a month-long project in March called All Women Everywhere, providing a platform to reflect the diverse mix of female experience and voices in Britain today Through blogs, features and video, we'll be exploring the issues facing women specific to their age, ethnicity, social status, sexuality and gender identity. If you'd like to blog on our platform around these topics, email ukblogteam@huffingtonpost.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With the recent women's march being declared a resounding success by feminist activists across the globe, we can draw at least one big conclusions: digital feminist activism, when done well, can be translated into offline, boots-on-the-ground style campaigns.

# data[].attributes.headline
Relationship between Social Media and Art

# data[].attributes.subject
Relationship between Social Media and Art

# data[].attributes.body
As I am pursuing a double major in Sociology and Arts & Culture Management, it was interesting to note how digital culture has shaped the conditions of artistic production and reception today.

1. Social Media as Marketing Tool Referencing Bourdieu's notion of a field, it is worth noting how social media following has become a form of currency (i.e. social and cultural capital), for agents to interact and engage with one another.

2. Censorship
Artistic producers now have to grapple and navigate the digital environment with new censorship guidelines specific to the digital realm.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When the Argentine-born, London-educated artist Amalia Ulman moved to Los Angeles in 2014, she spent weeks chronicling the experience on Instagram (@amaliaulman). She posted photos of her shopping binges, her avocado toast and even her plastic surgery: a boob job, natch.

After her move, Ulman became every stereotype of the Westside workout woman, down to the feel-good aphorisms she also regularly posted online. ("Don't worry about those who talk behind your back, they're behind you for a reason.")

None of it - except for maybe the avocado toast - was real. It was a performance, part of a larger examination of the ways in which women depict themselves in public. "Excellences & Perfections," as the series was called, astutely employed Instagram's fascination for hyper-pretty perfection to tell a story about a quest for just such a thing (one that involved a truckload of L.A. clichés).

"I was always interested in self-representation and the class divide," explains Ulman, "how people interact with each other and how people represent themselves by what clothes they wear and what signals they send."

https://www.instagram.com/p/pxVqkHlV8P/

As in all other corners of public and private life, the advent of social media has transformed the ways in which artists interact with each other, their public and the institutions that govern their careers.

Services such as Facebook and Instagram have come to be regarded as essential spaces for emerging artists to share their work (or to put it more crassly, find "new eyeballs"). Websites such as Artsy provide earnest how-tos on how to win over collectors on Instagram such as use of hashtags, since these "enable collectors to instantly aggregate an artist's content and also reveal public support for an artist."

L.A.-based art dealer Stefan Simchowitz has talked about how he uses Instagram to create "heat" and "velocity" for artists he represents. And Hans Ulrich Obrist, the influential curator of London's Serpentine Gallery, posts daily to his account - @hansulrichobrist - a phenomenon he's described as "a movement of some sort."

But the relationship between art and social media is a tricky one. The former is about pushing boundaries; the latter, enforcing them - in the case of Instagram, in a literal square.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_Qh8GqtI7b/

Issues of censorship abound. The list of individuals and institutions who have had images removed or their accounts suspended reads like an art world who's who, including the Philadelphia Art Museum, for a pop painting from the 1960s that was deemed too suggestive, and New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz, booted for posting images of Roman and medieval erotica online.

And there are countless other questions about how some of these services - especially Facebook and Instagram, the most powerful - may be quietly shaping the way art is produced and shown, perhaps even motivating artists and art institutions to feature work that looks attractive on digital platforms, even if it feels flimsy in real life.

"We are making up the rules as we all go along," says Rebecca Morse, an associate curator in photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). "This is a topic that social scientists are grappling with - how [a social media platform] is laid out affects the information that people insert into it."

Certainly, social media can be a difficult space for artists to present ideas or images that lie outside of the gauzy universe of sunsets and cappuccinos.

Facebook's community standards, for example, do not allow photographs of nudity (a.k.a. "people displaying genitals") - which pretty much puts the kibosh on presenting a lot of contemporary photography, not to mention documentation of historic and contemporary performance art. The services, however, do allow users to post "photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures." (Not dissimilar to The Times' publication standards in this area.)

But these are erratically enforced.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_QjjEENI9i/

L.A. artist Micol Hebron, who goes by @unicornkiller1 on Instagram, has long created images that poke at the arbitrary notions of acceptability on social media, creating nude self-portraits that place artful barriers over the bits that might be deemed offensive - such as Photoshopping acceptable male nipples over unacceptable female ones.

Last December, during a visit to the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, she snapped a photo of another artist's work - painter Lisa Yuskavage, who is known for producing buxom, kewpie-ish female figures in sherbet-y tones. The painting, titled "Northview," showed a woman lifting her shirt and examining her exposed right breast.

A few hours after uploading the image, Hebron discovered that she'd been locked out of her Facebook account and the image removed. "Someone complained," she says. "Over a painting! A painting of a woman looking at her own breast. It wasn't lewd or lascivious and it didn't have sexual content at all."

For the offense, Hebron was blocked from accessing her account for 30 days. She later created a self-portrait in the same pose - replacing her nipple with an illustration of a cockroach. She posted the image on Instagram where it remains to this day.

Hebron is hardly the only one to face the arbitrary hand of social media moderators.

In January, an image of Copenhagen's famous statue of the Little Mermaid, a century-old bronze inspired by the children's fairy tale, was removed from a Danish politician's Facebook feed for running afoul of community standards.

"The Little Mermaid," a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen, that was removed - and later reinstated - to Facebook. (Tariq Mikkel Khan / Associated Press)

In March, Los Angeles artist Illma Gore made headlines when she was blocked from Facebook for posting a painting of a nude Donald Trump. She was ultimately given access back to her account and the image was re-posted (it is a painting, after all), but Gore says the whole experience was disheartening.

"It's sad to me to watch it be filtered, like the news or what we see on TV," she says of Facebook. "That was the saddest part for me - that the communities we have created are quite censored as well."

Some of the arbitrariness is partly due to the fact that managing standards for a "community" of 1.6 billion people - Facebook's estimated user base - is hardly an exact science.

Contrary to popular lore, there is no algorithm scanning the service for naked butt. Currently, Facebook and Instagram rely on users to flag offending posts. These are then reviewed by employees of the company, who make the decision whether to remove the image and/or block posting privileges.

"It is not always easy to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves creatively while maintaining a comfortable experience for our global and culturally diverse community of many different ages," stated a Facebook spokesperson via email. "But we try our best."

A curator adjusts a painting of Donald Trump by Illma Gore at an exhibition in London. (Niklas Halle'n / AFP/Getty Images)

Even so, the process of being blocked can be bewildering. Paddy Johnson, the founder of the website blog Art F City, had her account frozen after a bot glitch led to a racy animated GIF being posted on the blog's Facebook page. Not only did she lose her privileges, so did everyone listed as an administrator of the page.

And trying to appeal these decisions is an opaque process. "You get an email and it's signed by someone with only their first name," says Johnson. "I received an email from 'Keith.' "

That is not to say that social media haven't been a boon to art in some ways. They have allowed artists a high level of dialogue with their public.

"And it's changed criticism," says Lauren Cornell, a curator at the New Museum in New York, who also oversees some of the museum's technology initiatives. "A lot of discussion has migrated [to sites like Facebook]."

But it nonetheless remains "a hard place for art," she adds. "It's kind of like being asked to make art in the showroom of a company. It's a compromised space."

Part of this is due to the very architecture of these platforms.

"Artists shouldn't be making works to get 'likes,' " she says. "They should be thinking about generating conversation. I think about this for myself. I'm not a curator so people can just give me a thumbs up."

"There is also the issue of artists branding themselves and what that does," she adds, "how they feel that in order to be an artist they have to create a successful 'brand' on Instagram."

This can lead to an insidious form of self-censorship, says Ulman.

"It's not just about nudity," she explains. "It's about the need to put something up that people are going to 'like.' It becomes this disposable idea."

The rise of social media has likewise seen the rise of the "Instagrammable" art object or installation: Works that look great in a box on a phone but which may be thin when it comes to concept or ideas in the gallery. Random International's "Rain Room" at LACMA is one such installation - a work that serves more as an ideal set for picture-making than it does as a place where viewers can tease out complex ideas about nature.

Some of this may be due to the fact that the types of works rewarded by social media tend to be of one kind - the kind that looks good in a box on a phone. That generally means objects with attractive repeating patterns or works with a graphic punch that render well in two dimensions.

https://www.instagram.com/p/9Z0jrOrp-l/

Oliver Leach, a San Francisco-based photographer who eschews Instagram in favor of less restrictive services like Twitter, states: "You don't get the abject in Instagram at all. That's crucial to me. The abject is something you don't want to see - and it's important for art."

All of this, however, does make services such as Facebook and Instagram a system ripe for messing with - which is exactly what artists such as Ulman have been doing.

There are others, too. Laimonas Zakas, the artist known as Glitchr, has long played with gaps in Facebook's code to mess with its boxy, blue format. And, in 2011, conceptual artist Ed Fornieles gathered identity information from a bunch of college students he found on Facebook (against the rules) and used it to create a series of fictional characters that he employed in a long-running online group performance that he also staged on Facebook.

Currently, Ulman is in the midst of another piece - which she is shooting, Instagram by Instagram - in a small office space downtown, in which she dons conservative office wear and hangs out with a pigeon named Bob.

Ulman grew up with the Web and its tropes intrigue her. But they in no way represent the entirety of art to her. Nor is she staging these performances for the sake of "likes."

"Life is not just visual," she says. "Everything has been flattened into an image because of the media, but art is more than images."

"A sculpture," she adds, "should be allowed to be a sculpture."
MORE: L.A. helps Havana's vintage neon signs glow again: 'It marks a new era, a return of the light, of hope' Is it news or entertainment? The fuzziness of modern life gets operatic in JacobTV's 'The News' Q&A: As Gronk's set designs go on view at CAFAM, the artist talks opera, painting and B-movie crab monsters Twitter and Vine loosen limits to hold on to users Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Social media have become a vital tool for artists - but are they good for art?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Popular social media such as Facebook and Instagram are widely used by artists who want to share their work. But the services have limitations, from censorship to restrictions on nudity (a staple in art) to a culture driven by popularity over ideas. These platforms can spread the word, but are they good for art?

# data[].attributes.body
This article expounds on the changing nature of parenting in today's digital age, wherein there is a need for parents to be mindful of the peculiarities in bringing up a digital native.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
But I worry that on their own, they'll become addicted, use social media inappropriately or be exposed to something they're not ready for.

According to a recent report by Common Sense Media, my fears align perfectly with the top fears of parents of tweens across the country. The same report showed that, on average, parents of teens and tweens spend more than nine hours a day with screen media, with 82 percent of that dedicated to personal screen media, including about an hour of social media. Interestingly, 78 percent of us feel like we're good media role models for kids.

So, do I want my kids to do as I do? Not exactly. But I do want to be the one to show them around. That's the approach Sherry Turkle, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology psychologist, recommends.

"Spend some time introducing your child to social media, the same way you introduce them to your neighborhood," said Dr. Turkle, author of "Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age." "It is simply now part of parenting."

True, but it's an intimidating part, one many parents of tweens feel ill-equipped for, because we can't look to our own upbringing to figure it out. Will our children become fame-obsessed and learn only to care about themselves, as some recent research from the Children's Digital Media Center at Los Angeles suggests?

Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and a co-author of the study, said it showed that the more children engaged with the "like" culture of social media, the more they tended to have self-focused aspirations to do with fame, image, money and status.

What can parents do?
1. Have conversations
The more, the better - and include talk about taboo topics, Dr. Turkle said. "The social media talk" is not so different from "the birds and the bees talk" (and actually covers some of the same things). Kids need to understand what's out there, she said, and to know that they may come across inappropriate images, mean comments or people asking them questions about themselves.

Kids also need to understand what's appropriate for them to post. "They may know more than you do about technology, but they don't have the social context that adults do," said Sierra Filucci, executive editor of parenting content for Common Sense Media. This matters, because predators are more likely to prey on children and teens who have put up inappropriate things. "Vulnerable kids are more vulnerable to bad things," she said.

The goal is to create an open, positive family culture where social media is on the table as a topic of discussion. None of the experts I talked to for this article recommended using spyware. "You have to show kids that you are a partner in this journey and you are there to help them make better decisions," said Scott Steinberg, author of "Parenting High-Tech Kids."
2. Create an agreement
My son is into gymnastics and loves watching "flippers" - teenagers doing double flips at extreme trampoline parks. He wanted to post videos of his own moves, so after talking about it I helped him set up an account. I wanted to make a contract together for using it, as most experts recommend, but first, I waited to see what crazy thing he might do that I would never anticipate.

"That's a good approach," Ms. Filucci said. "Your contract should be a living document, not a one-and-done thing."

I'm glad I waited, because by the end of the weekend, I had learned the trouble spots - his frequent posts, inappropriate wardrobe choice and when to get adults' permission among them - and we were able to talk about what to avoid.
3. Openly monitor usage
One of the rules was that I could unfollow or block people, but that he had the right to ask why. At first, I scanned his account constantly and unfollowed or blocked about 20 percent of his choices. But within a few weeks, I did it only once a day and edited very little. He learned quickly to look at someone's profile first. He learned what "bots" were, and that if he followed back accounts that were dedicated to selling things (like sports jerseys), the posts would clog up his feed. Only a few times did I see anything sexually inappropriate, which I promptly blocked and reported to Instagram.
4. Be open to learning from kids
One benefit is that global connectivity is helping my son embrace global citizenship. He will happily connect with kids in any country, in any language, in alphabets I don't even recognize.

I didn't grow up that way and I'm proud to see him finding a place in the wider world. I hope those advantages can outweigh the greed for "likes" and fame found in the Children's Digital Media Center study.

But I also see the upside in those likes. My son has A.D.H.D. and often feels frustrated at his failures. But he loves flipping, and he is amazing at it. I let him use Instagram because I wanted him to connect with other kids like him - essentially to find his people.

"We have a study that shows that kids who use social media do feel more connected to friends, whether it's friends online or ones they see every day at school," Ms. Filucci said.

It has definitely served that purpose, as well as being a creative outlet. I'm enjoying watching him learn how to edit video, make artistic choices, and understand the copyright rules of music. Reading captions on his posts like, "This is my favorite trick to do off the mini-tramp" gives me a little window into who he is that I may not have otherwise.

Yes, it's a little scary at times, but mostly, it makes me smile to scroll through his feed. Though I admit, I still haven't figured out what to tell the 7-year-old about a YouTube channel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
video recordings  downloads and streaming

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
But I worry that on their own, they'll become addicted, use social media inappropriately or be exposed to something they're not ready for. According to a recent report by Common Sense Media, my fears align perfectly with the top fears of parents of tweens across the country.

# data[].attributes.body
Chanced upon an exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark. The exhibition explored the relationship between digital technologies and the self, as well as our community. It was quite refreshing to see our discussions in class being articulated visually.

# data[].attributes.body
This articles discusses how youths navigate around the workings of social media, of which social norms vis-a-vis online behaviour are established.

It would be interesting to explore the implications of learning how to navigate both the online and offline world simultaneously on the development of one's self-identity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Aware of their privileged socioeconomic status, they talked about how it would not be O.K. to share vacation pictures of a fancy hotel, using the example of a classmate who had violated this rule. Like many unspoken social codes, this one became vivid to these girls upon its violation.

As part of a school project the girl had displayed pictures from her vacation at a foreign resort. Her classmates considered it an immature form of "bragging," and said other kids had gone on even "better trips" or lived in "amazing houses" but "knew better" than to post about it.

The same girls identified another peer as "too sexual," a judgment some parents even encouraged. A few said their moms did not want them to hang out with a particular girl because she "acts too sexy." One of the girls expressed this sentiment in a group text that included the peer in question, leading to hurt feelings and conflicts.

Middle school can be an especially complicated time for girls. They are experimenting with social identity, even as their always-on digital world intensifies the scrutiny. Many want to be seen as pretty (even sexy, in some ways), but also as innocent and as "nice." This is an impossible balancing act. Parents can help by suggesting more empowering alternatives to posting bathing suit pictures.

Another group of seventh graders (of mixed gender and in a different community) told me the rules regarding how many pictures to post from an event. There was a sense of what was acceptable and what was not. Posting one to three images was fine, they said, but all agreed it was "obnoxious" to "blow up people's phones" with a huge stream of images from a party or event.

These kinds of images can lead to feelings of exclusion as well. Imagine watching a party unfold, in real time, on Snapchat or Instagram, when you aren't there. The experience can be absolutely devastating to tween and teenage children. When I asked these seventh graders about it, they said that it happened all the time, and that it can be hard to deal with.

With their lives constantly on display, it's a challenge for even well-intentioned tweens to avoid making others feel excluded. The "rule" was that it is "better not to lie or make excuses" if you are with one friend and another friend wants to hang out. Better to be honest and say, "I have plans," than to lie and say, "I have too much homework," then take a risk when sharing images of yourself out with friends later.

Parents often feel as if their children's smartphones are portals to another world - one that they know little to nothing about. A study released last month found that fewer than half of the parents surveyed regularly discussed social media content with their tween and teenage children.

But parents need to know that their child's peers have created their own set of rules for social media, and that they should ask their kids about them. What are you "allowed" to post, and what seems to be off-limits? Are the rules the same for boys and girls? Why or why not? Can you show me an example of a "good" post, or a "bad" one? Does social media ever stress you out (and can you give yourself a break)? How can kids in your group make group texts or social media nicer for everyone?

In a study published last summer, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the pleasure centers in teenagers' brains respond to the reward of getting "likes" on Instagram exactly as they do to thoughts of sex or money. And just as parents try to teach children self-control around those enticements, they must also talk to them about not falling victim to behavior they will regret when craving those "likes."

As parents, we don't want our kids to make a big mistake online: writing something mean in a group text, posting a too-sexy picture or forwarding one of someone else. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 24 percent of teenagers are online "almost constantly," so it's essential that they know how to handle themselves there.

Getting your children to articulate the unspoken rules can be the first step in helping them be more understanding of their peers. When we observe our children harshly judging others who have a different sensibility about the use of social media, they need us to set aside our judgments about their world, and help them cultivate empathy for one another.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Aware of their privileged socioeconomic status, they talked about how it would not be O.K. to share vacation pictures of a fancy hotel, using the example of a classmate who had violated this rule. Like many unspoken social codes, this one became vivid to these girls upon its violation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Implications of Digital Technologies on Youths

# data[].attributes.subject
Implications of Digital Technologies on Youths

# data[].attributes.body
This article mainly discusses the detriments of digital technologies on youths - distraction, addiction, inter alia. While there may be negative implications, the article overlooks the positive benefits that may arise from early digital engagement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (Published 2010)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The constant stream of stimuli offered by new technology poses a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the works that was featured in the exhibition - Anamazon (Into the Land), 2017, Pamela Rosenkranz.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the works that was featured in the exhibition - Anamazon (Into the Land), 2017, Pamela Rosenkranz.

# data[].attributes.body
Interesting article that discusses the influence of digital culture over the production and reception of the arts, and what this means for contemporary culture on the whole.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
State of the Art

Credit... Doug Chayka

One secret to longevity as a pundit is to issue predictions that can't be easily checked. So here's one for the time capsule: Two hundred years from now, give or take, the robot-people of Earth will look back on the early years of the 21st century as the beginning of a remarkable renaissance in art and culture.

That may sound unlikely to many of us in the present. In the past few decades, we've seen how technology has threatened the old order in cultural businesses, including the decimation of the music industry, the death of the cable subscription, the annihilation of newspapers and the laying to waste of independent bookstores.

But things are turning around; for people of the future, our time may be remembered as a period not of death, but of rejuvenation and rebirth.

Part of the story is in the art itself. In just about every cultural medium, whether movies or music or books or the visual arts, digital technology is letting in new voices, creating new formats for exploration, and allowing fans and other creators to participate in a glorious remixing of the work. This isn't new; from blogs to podcasts to YouTube, the last 20 years have been marked by a succession of formats that have led to ever-lower barriers for new and off-the-wall creators.

Yet for much of that time, the business side of culture looked under assault. The internet taught a whole generation that content was not something you really had to pay for. So for years, digital content companies - especially those in the online news business - looked doomed to pursue a scale-only, ad-based business model. They tried to reach tens of millions of readers, viewers or listeners in the hopes of getting pennies in ads per user. Not only was that unsustainable, it was also ruining culture: It left no room for small acts and subtle niches, and it turned everything into overheated clickbait. Things looked gloomy.

But now something surprising has happened.

In the last few years, and with greater intensity in the last 12 months, people started paying for online content. They are doing so at an accelerating pace, and on a dependable, recurring schedule, often through subscriptions. And they're paying for everything.

You've already heard about the rise of subscription-based media platforms - things like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Spotify and Apple Music. But people are also paying for smaller-audience and less-mainstream-friendly content. They are subscribing to podcasters, comedians, zany YouTube stars, novelists and comic book artists. They are even paying for news.

It's difficult to overstate how big a deal this is. More than 20 years after it first caught mainstream attention and began to destroy everything about how we finance culture, the digital economy is finally beginning to coalesce around a sustainable way of supporting content. If subscriptions keep taking off, it won't just mean that some of your favorite creators will survive the internet. It could also make for a profound shift in the way we find and support new cultural talent. It could lead to a wider variety of artists and art, and forge closer connections between the people who make art and those who enjoy it.

"The macro trends are so encouraging and so exciting," said Jack Conte, the founder of Patreon, one of the companies leading the subscription revolution. Patreon allows you to subscribe to artists - but instead of funding specific, one-time projects, as on Kickstarter, you fund people on a recurring basis.

"What we want to do is change the entire financing mechanism that drives the production of content online," Mr. Conte said. "We want to change how things are paid for and how the web runs. For us, it's a very, very big problem."

Mr. Conte founded Patreon in 2013 and has since funded $100 million in art, with creators on the platform doubling their income every year. Top creators can make tens of thousands of dollars a month. In 2016, more than 35 artists reaped more than $150,000 each on the platform.

"I do think something has changed culturally," Mr. Conte said. "This new generation is more concerned with social impact. There's a desire to vote with your dollars and your time and attention."

Some of that is happening in the news business, too. The New York Times and many other newspapers reported a surge in subscriptions after Donald J. Trump won the presidency last year.

The trend hasn't abated: The Times reported last week that in the last few months, a program to collect "sponsorships" for students amassed enough money to grant more than 1.3 million students access to NYTimes.com. The money came from more than 15,500 people, including one anonymous donor who gave $1 million. In its earnings report last month, The Times also said that it now has more than three million print and digital subscribers.

Other subscriptions are also rising across the board. Apple users spent $2.7 billion on subscriptions in the App Store in 2016, an increase of 74 percent over 2015. Last week, the music service Spotify announced that its subscriber base increased by two-thirds in the last year, to 50 million from 30 million. Apple Music has signed on 20 million subscribers in about a year and a half. In the final quarter of 2016, Netflix added seven million new subscribers - a number that exceeded its expectations and broke a company record. It now has nearly 94 million subscribers.

Huge content platforms have been criticized for the way they treat artists. Even if lots of people are paying for services like Spotify, critics say that it can be difficult for musicians, especially smaller and less-well-known ones, to make a sustainable living from the platform.

Yet many artists are finding ways around these difficulties. Thanks to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, artists can now establish close relationships with their fans. They can sell merchandise and offer special fan-only promotions and content. And after finding an audience, they can use sites like Patreon to get a dependable paycheck from their most loyal followers.

This sort of alternative arrangement isn't easy to pursue; it can take time, effort and skills in unusual dark arts (such as how social-media marketing works). But there are signs it is catching on: At the Grammys last year, the award for best new artist went to Chance the Rapper, who has famously, proudly rejected every offer to sign with a record label and even to sell any of his music.

If there are difficulties in navigating the modern cultural business, there are upsides, too.

"I can have a normal life now," said Peter Hollens, an a cappella singer who creates cover videos on YouTube. Mr. Hollens, who lives in Eugene, Ore., now makes about $20,000 a month from his Patreon page. The money has allowed him to hire production help and to increase his productivity, but it has also brought him something else: a feeling of security in being an artist.

"I don't have to go out on the road and play in bars," he said. "I can be a father and I can be a husband. This normalizes my career. It normalizes the career of being an artist, which has never been normalized."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the Internet Is Saving Culture, Not Killing It (Published 2017)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
State of the Art One secret to longevity as a pundit is to issue predictions that can't be easily checked. So here's one for the time capsule: Two hundred years from now, give or take, the robot-people of Earth will look back on the early years of the 21st century as the beginning of a remarkable renaissance in art and culture.