Introduction to Mediated Interfaces: The Body in Social Media
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Abstract
The #Me is a common hashtag on social media signifying personal practices and images of the self and so the title signified at once our personal research interests: selfies (Cambre, 2016; Warfield, 2016a, b, 2017), self-presentation on Instagram (Abidin 2018a, b; Leaver et al., 2019), hook-up apps (Cambre and David, 2016), and tumblr (Warfield, 2020), and political images of faces that circulate subversively online (Cambre, 2016). #Me also reflected some of the core themes we explore in this book: selfhood, social media, identities, the feeling, and fleshy body. The bracketed (inter), in the original title, also signified a play on mediation. Interderives from the Latin roots meaning ‘into the world’ or ‘into materiality’. It evokes a movement from thought, concept, or theory to matter. From idea to world. And finally, the bracketed -faces pointed to the actual fleshy face of the body: the mug, the ‘money maker’, the home of recognition, judgement, categorization, and subsequently social consideration and treatment.