Living on a Picture: Approaching Images and Life Stories in Social Media

Abstract

If images were once conceived either as subordination or oppositions of words, the advent of the Internet has started new relationship dynamics between them. Within this digital scenario, vision and textuality intensely intertwine in the form of captions, posts, hyperlinks or other kind of social media content, daily handled by users. In this context, autobiographical narratives will take on a major role, shaping the way in which the subject conceives, forges and registers his or her identity in relation to the reader/viewer. This article aims to address the question, more present than ever, of how certain autobiographical narratives are disseminated through social networks, and how image and narrative dialogue within this framework. By addressing specific cases found on platforms such as Instagram, we will try to elucidate how these publications point to an ambivalent relationship with visual tropes or narratives associated with certain life experiences, either questioning it or contributing to the creation of a collective narrative. A complex interplay of image and narrative that will affect not only how we share life, but also how we understand it and construct it together with others in a changing world.

Keywords

• images
• autobiography
• social media
• life narrative