Poop pictures : mothers' social labor as seen in vernacular smartphone

• Main Author: Li, Yuling
• Other Authors: Richard Seyler Ling
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76229
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study examines how mothers of young children in Singapore engage in vernacular smartphone photography. Through interviews with 24 women, it explores the different types of pictures that they take in the course of everyday parenting, and what these mothers do to and with their photographs. The findings show that smartphone photography served multiple purposes for the mothers, and pictures can hold different meanings in varying communication contexts. A taxonomy of social uses is developed. Under the instrumental domain, functions of smartphone photography include visual records, reports, and teaching aids. Photographs are also used expressively as memories (time capsules and life chronicles) and social currency (show-and-tell; update; connection; greeting; and managed impression) in mediated communication, such as instant messaging and social network sites. Further, the material provides evidence as to how women use smartphone photography to communicate and perform their motherhood – and the many material and immaterial social labor activities (Fortunati & Taipale, 2014), such as childcare and kin-keeping. The theory of polymedia (Madianou & Miller, 2012) is applied to elucidate the micro-workings of the mothers’ photo-based interactions on the smartphone. The study reveals various aspects of the mothers’ careful image curation process, and shows that their photo-sharing decisions carry emotional, social and moral weight. Even as the smartphone is appropriated as a mothering tool, the practice of smartphone photography is itself a form of social labor for these women, who not only reproduce but also negotiate cultural norms on mothering and issues such as decency and privacy. Keywords: Mobile communication, smartphone photography, social labor, gender, polymedia, social network sites