Discussion 2

Reflect on the definitions of “metadata” in Lesson 1 and the Karen Coyle chapter from Week
One. For this week’s discussion post, read this week’s required readings (Macpherson and Cole)
and answer the following questions: What is the “data” in each article? What is the “metadata”?
According to these articles, how can the addition or exclusion of metadata impact our lives
and/or preserve memory? What are the ethical implications of this addition or exclusion? Please
reference the required readings in your post and don’t forget to respond to a classmate’s post as
well.

MY ANSWER
The article by Cole was very interesting and brought up a lot of good points when it comes to
thinking about items from the past. The data in The Digital Afterlife of Lost Family Photos are
the Polaroids. The metadata of these Polaroids are the information that is found when looking or
uploading the photos onto an app. According to Cole (2016), "There are white rectangles
framing the faces, and there is an instruction above each picture: 'Click Anywhere to Tag.'" This
simple gesture of posting photos onto Facebook and the app recognizing people and their faces is
a form of metadata because it recognizes the details' of their faces. The addition of metadata can
be helpful if someone was looking for the Polaroids that had been lost, but if they had no interest
in them, then the additional information could be pointless. Cole (2016) explains, "For all of us,
but especially for those in communities of color, being digitally tracked does not solve the
conundrums of inequality. Whatever else the machines learn, they'll have to learn about our
sense of privacy too, the human necessity of leaving some things untagged and undeclared."
Sometimes learning or being reminded of your family's past isn't always good. Sometimes we
end up reliving situations that are painful and lead to a lot of bad memories. This is something
that machines will have to learn but unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to know what
information is or is not sensitive to the human heart and mind.
The data in the article by Macpherson are the papers and photographs he inherited. The metadata
is who they came from, who took them and the sizes of the papers and photographs. The new
items also have 'metadata' with the internet. According to Macpherson (2014), "But today we
have the internet, and Google. And crucially, unlike many other images from this period ALL
these images have ‘metadata’…..well sort of." He explains how some of the photos have dates,
location and a piece of information from a time in history. By using this information and
plugging it into Google, he was able to find out a little more about the history of some of the
photos. Some history tends to get lost when family passes down items to younger generations.
Macpherson (2014) explains, "This only underlines for me the importance of metadata: it is the
thread that weaves together the story of our digital lives, and if we allow it to be unpicked, the
fabric of recollection of our collective pasts simply unravels and is lost." If the history of these
items are passed down, then the metadata of them helps to preserve memories from ancestors and
those items have more of an impact onto the younger generations. However, if the history and
memories are not passed down to younger generations, then it may be harder to connect and
cherish those items. As far as ethical implications, I guess I never gave much thought about
tagging people in photos on Facebook. I think the way that technology is changing is much faster
than we can develop new ideas on how to protect people and their rights in some cases. I will
definitely think twice about tagging people in photos on social media sites.
References:
Cole, T. (2016, April 26). The digital aftermath of lost family photos. New York Times
Magazine. Retrieved from http://nyti.ms/1NOTWB2 (Links to an external site.)
Macpherson, J. (2014, June 5). Metadata, time and the story of our pasts. Retrieved from
http://www.duckrabbit.info/2014/06/metadata-time-and-the-story-of-our-pasts/

Response to Classmate: from Discussion 2

May 22, 2021 7:10PM
Marissa Guzman
I really like how you mentioned tagging people in photos online without their permission
because this is something that I do often and I never gave much thought to it. By Facebook
asking me to tag them, I guess I thought that that was suffieccient enough, when it isn't close to
people's rights. I will not be doing any tagging of photos ever again unless people tell me that is
it okay for me to tag them. Finding photos and posting them to social media and finding someone
is something that I thought never happened..until it happened to my family. My uncle had lost
contact with one of his son's and his mother when he was in the war. That son (my cousin), came
across the photo 50 years later and posted to social media to try and find his father (mu uncle).
Luckily, my cousin did find his father and realized that his family here in The States was much
bigger than he ever anticipated. For my family, this was a good situation/family reunion but this
isn't always the case for others. I think it is important that you pointed out that not all memories
are something that are wanted to be preserved and that they can cause harm or embarrassment to
some.

Response from Professor

Great points, Marissa, well done! You captured what I was going for when I asked the questions
“what is the data?” and “what is the metadata?” There is other metadata we can associate with
the photographs as well if we think about the categories provided by Dublin Core. Also,
excellent exploration of the ethical implications in the Cole article. There is definitely a tension
between the need to document history and to respect privacy, so it is a delicate line to walk.
There are no easy answers, but recognition of this ethical tension is important nonetheless. Nice
posts - thank you!
Karen Snow , May 25 at 12:38pm