Photo Sharing in the Digital Age. How Mobile and Online Media Are Used for Photo Creation and Sharing of Everyday Experiences.

Photographs have always been important for building and maintaining social relationships (Van House 2004). Since the rise of amateur photography between 1880 and 1900 analog photographs serve as “objects of remembrance” creating collective memories and providing other people insight into individuals’ lives (Bourdieu et al. 1990). In an age where computer-mediated communication and mobile phones with integrated digital camera have become integral parts of everyday life, photos can be shared directly after they were taken, via mobile messenger (e.g. WhatsApp), social network sites (e.g. Facebook) or photo sharing websites (e.g. Pinterest).

The main aim of this presentation is to identify motivations that lie behind online photo sharing, the ways that are used for sharing and how the people decide which photos are chosen to be shared be shared with whom. The findings of an online survey with 398 German-speaking Internet users are put in relation with scientific studies about analog photo sharing. It turns out that some basic motivations and gratifications of photo sharing are independent of the technological aspects. But differences in the analog and digital photo sharing behavior appear too: Due to digitalization and computer-mediated distribution most participants report having a huge amount of personal pictures on their computers or mobile phones which are used to share photos with others. But at the same time, the advantages of this quick and cheap way of photo distribution are also recognized as somewhat problematical. The users are aware that online pictures can really easily be reproduced by others and could be shared with even unknown people. Additionally, the users do not want to make all types of photos visible for all of their online contacts. Therefore, online photo sharing is a well reflected process in which the users decide for every single photo with whom they like to share it.