Immaterial Photos vs. Material Photos

Most young people who are familiar with using computers and digitize data do not print their digital photos but only save them in the computers. Being immaterial, digital photos take no room; in contrast, printed photos occupy one’s living space by nonstop increase.

Nonetheless, although digital photos take the advantage of taking no room, preserving them is a big problem. At present, the general way for keeping digital photos is saving them in the computers and CDs. However, people do not regard hard disks and CDs as dependable storage devices. On the other hand, although printed photos occupy spaces, they are material that would not disappear without reasons at any moment. Considering the dependability of photo keeping, some of the informants expressed their wish of printing their digital photos.

But they were also worried about that the great amount of printed photos would cause

difficulties in placing and cost a lot of money. Besides, picking out the favorite digital photos

for printing also takes great efforts. Thus, most of the informants have given up the idea of printing digital photos. However, there are still some of the informants who printed digital photos for flipping them in a conventional way. In addition, most people regard printed photos more precious than digital ones. They rarely throw printed photos away even though the photos are not of very good quality while deleting unsuccessful digital photos from their digital cameras and computers is much easier for them.

4.3.3 Categorizing and Annotating Digital and Conventional Photos

Annotating digital photos is not as easy as annotating printed ones. Most people categorize their digital photos in separate folders and name the folders with dates and events of the photos, but they can not save their digital photo with additional annotations (See Figure 18).

On the side of a photo album, the printed photos inside are labeled with the date and event of the photo set. Inside the photo albums, the photos are annotated easily with dates, places, companions and other information in the note columns beside the photos. (See Figure 19) But generally speaking, being too busy at work to take care of their photos, most people do not pay attention to photo management and annotation in their daily life. When they share the stories of their old photos with others, they often rely on their memories about the content of the photos. However, after dozens of years, their memories about the photos have slipped, people start to regret their negligence of well photo management in the past.

Figure 18 (on the left) Folders named with dates and events Figure 19 (on the right) Annotation in a photo album

4.3.4 Digital Photo Browsing vs. Conventional Photo Browsing

Most informants in this research like to flip printed photos more than view digital ones on the screen. Devices such as computers, laptops, and TVs are necessary for browsing digital photos. Therefore, people cannot view digital photos at any place at will. One of the

informants said that sitting in the sofa flipping printed photos leisurely is much more comfortable than viewing digital photos in front of a computer screen. Printed photos are tangible and can be hold in hands, which makes it easily browsed. Most parents interviewed in this research do not like to view photos on the computers for being unfamiliar with operating computers. The aches in eyes and shoulders caused by staring at computer screens and clicking mouse also keep them away from view digital photos on the computers. One of the informants indicated that she browsed her photos more often before photos were digitized.

Another informant who preferred printed photos said she thinks printed photos are more real and of better quality than digital ones.

4.3.5 Digital Photo Sharing vs. Conventional Photo Sharing

Conventional photos can arouse lively face-to-face interaction, while digital photos take advantage of distant sharing. People usually share their digital photos through uploading the photos to online file space or albums. People who want to see the photos, usually their friends and family members, can download or browse these photos on the Internet by themselves. On the other hand, the approach of sharing conventional photos is usually passing photo albums around or flipping photos together. In this way, not only the photographer can interpret his photo to people in person but also people can discuss about the photos with the photographer on the spot. The interaction between photographer and people browsing the photos is livelier than that in sharing photos through the Internet. Nevertheless, digital photos have the

advantage of remote sharing. To share printed photos, the only way is mailing the copies.

Printing copies of photos costs money, and mailing them takes time, while digital photos can be shared distantly through e-mail, FTP, and online albums immediately and free.

Furthermore, digital photos can be annotated easily in the online photo albums, so some people are enthusiastic about renaming and annotating the photos in their online photo albums

in an interesting way when they want to share these photos with others. With these

entertaining annotations, the photos become more interesting for the viewers. However, quite a few people neither add annotations nor carefully pick photos for their online photo albums.

Many photos of bad quality are excursively put in the albums, and bore people browsing them.

People rarely browse these photos leisurely, but only skim them over quickly. One of the informants said she preferred receiving printed photos than getting e-mails with the web address of a sharing online photo album in. In most of the time, she did not even click the link to their online photo albums.

In addition, when the informants were asked about the reasons why they chose their present online photo album, one of them mentioned the feature of adding links to friends’ albums.

Another cared more about the user friendly interface for direct cognition and easy adoption.

Other reasons included the aesthetics of the web page layout, the amount of users of the web site, the interactivity between the users, and the stability of the web server.

5 DISCUSSIONS

In the previous chapter, the findings summarized from the contextual inquiries about people's photo usage at home are presented. Underlying these photo usage, there are people's motives and things that affect their photo usage. In this chapter, two points from the findings are discussed in order to find out implications of the implement of information technology for future photo-related devices and services at home. On the one hand, insights in terms of the meaning of photos in the domestic sphere to a family and members in the family are revealed.

On the other hand, key factors about how digital technologies influence photo usage at home are discussed.

5.1 Meaning of Photos to a Family

Photos play an important role in maintaining relationships between family members. The meaning of photos to a family can be identified as creating personal or family histories, preserving memories, substituting for one’s love, and sharing experiences, as follows.

5.1.1 Creating Personal or Family Histories

Photo collections over a long period of time are regarded as records of personal and family histories. People generally have to pass through many stages in their life, including being born, coming of age, getting married, having babies, aging, and facing death. Most parents take photos once in a while to record the stages in their children's growth. By flipping the photo album that consists of these photos, it is easy to see the changes in one’s appearance. Like its members, a family also changes with time and has its own history. One of the informants in this research picked out photos from each period of her family and displayed them on the wall at home. Another informant collected photos of her relatives of the same generation in their childhood and rearranged their photos into a photo album. These photo collections are like epitome of a family that reflects the changes of the family members and their home

environment. As Van House [13] said, these photos are material traces of the continuity of the family over time and place. By inheriting old family photos, the history of the family is permanently hung over. Children have chances to know more about their parents through the

old photos in their youth. Junior generations are able to be more acquainted with the histories of their family through photos of their ancestors.

5.1.2 Preserving Memories

Photos preserve memories for people. It is hard for people to remember everything in their life. As time passes by, the most memorable events are sometimes forgotten. Chalfen [8] has quoted Zelizer's claim that “In the contemporary age, memory has come to be seen as depending on an array of media technologies, from radio, cinema and computers to the printed press. Externalizing memory outside the human brain has thereby engendered diverse alternatives for its embodiment elsewhere”, and suggested that home media specifically collections of family photos have been overlooked as a serious site of such embodiment.

People like to take photos of memorable family events such as birthdays of family members, children's graduation ceremony, family trips, etc. One of the informants indicated that taking photos is like keeping a diary with the camera which records every moment of one's life.

Taking photos with digital cameras consumes no films and that allows people to take photos more careless and capture whatever scenes they are interested in. Therefore, comparing to conventional photography, digital photography preserves more dribs and drabs of one’s life.

Viewing these photos would remind people of the old days even after many years.

5.1.3 Substituting for one’s love

One’s portrait is regarded as a substitution for the person. Lovers put photos of each other in their wallets. Looking at the photo of one's love is like looking at him in his face, makes people in love feel happiness. While children leave home for school or work, parents display their photos at places they usually stay to ease the yearning for their children. One of the informants working away from home said he once felt lonely and homesick, and the family photo on his cabinet gave him comfort and let him feel the company of family. People also hang photos of deceased family members in the living room like that they still accompany the family.

Viewing photos of one’s family and friends reminds people memories about them and

triggers related emotions. When one informant was asked to choose photos which have specific meanings to him, he mentioned a family photo. The photo was taken after his

grandmother passed by and members in the family reunited for holding her funeral. Before the informant’s grandmother passed by, his family members were fighting for something; but during the mourning period, the family got together and restored their relationship. The photo was taken in this circumstance. For people not in his family, it is probably merely a family photo; but for him who has close relation to the people in the photo and experienced the event, the photo triggers his emotions. The trigger of memories and emotions in a photo is termed as the “punctum” by Barthes [26] in “Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography”. Barthes indicated two elements in viewing photos: “stadium” and “punctum”. The stadium is the informational and aesthetic aspect available to everyone while the punctum is specific to the individual. The punctum could be described as a small detail in a photo which triggers a succession of personal memories and unconscious associations [9]. Viewing the photo of one’s family and friends does not reconstruct the being of the people in the photos, but arouses one’s memories about the people through the image.

5.1.4 Sharing Experiences

In the present day, highly-developed communications have facilitated people's migration.

Many people leave their home from for study or work. The separation between family members causes isolation and loneliness. Technologies are helping to solve this problem by supporting the connection between separate family members. Since digital files including digital photos are transmitted instantly through the Internet, sharing photos has become much easier than before. Nowadays, people are more willing to share life experiences and emotions with distant family and friends by sharing daily photos. Besides, digital photos in the online photo albums are annotated easily. While viewing these photos with annotations, family and friends of the photographer are able to know his life in the distant place better. With 3G camera phone, sharing interesting experiences at any place and any time is even easier.

Sharing photos of what's going on in one's life is not only a form of reporting or journaling, but also a way of connecting to beloved ones [13]. Furthermore, by sharing and viewing photos of family members, the domestic spatiality is stretched beyond the walls of the home

through the relation with people, places and times that are not in the home [27]. Separate family members are closely linked to each other in this stretched home.

5.2 Meaning of Photos to an Individual in a Family

There are some usages of photo at home that are more meaningful to an individual than the family. These meaning of photos to an individual in a family can be identified as manifesting achievements, creating artwork, and developing social relationships, as follows.

5.2.1 Manifesting Achievements

Some photos are regarded as marks of achievements. People generally enlarge their photos of graduation, winning prizes or standing on the top of the mountains and display them at home as reminders of their accomplishments. One of the informants showed photos in her youth of climbing high mountains over three thousand kilometers with heavy backpack proudly during the interview. Another informant collaged photos of his art works exhibited at the art museum into a large frame. When showing these photos to other people or their family members, most of them feel proud of themselves.

5.2.2 Creating Artworks

People like to take photos of beautiful scenes rarely seen during their journey. They care more about the aesthetic aspect of these photos than photos of family members. When people are taking photos of golden sunsets, bloomy flowers, and spotless snow, the shutter is pressed after carefully framing the scene. One of the informants enjoys taking scenery photos very much and called these photos her “works”. Besides, she used them as the desktop of her computer. When her colleagues praise her for her photos, it makes her feel accomplished.

Sometimes, some of the family photos can be regarded as artworks as well. Some people distinguish their photo taking that is for recording family events from their photos for art and fun [13]. One of the informants sometimes draws himself out of his family life, and takes photos of his family members artistically as they are just subjects to be shot.

5.2.3 Developing Social Relationships

While browsing photos together, people share stories with others. People about the same age often find similar past experiences in the old photos and initiate lively conversations.

Photographs on display can easily function as an initiator or a topic of social exchange [22].

When friends of the old days come to home and see the displayed photos of children away from home often find changes of them and ask their parents about their latest information. By browsing photos together, people are more acquainted with each other and their families.

Besides, people like to share interesting photos with others who have common interests on the topic of the photos. One informant in this research shared photos of special cars with his friend interested in cars. Encountered information is shared to develop rapport between giver and recipient [29]. The content must appropriately reflect the interests of both, but the actual communicative intent of the act, to say something like “we have common concerns” or “we have the same sense of humor”, is more important.

5.3 The Impact of Digital Technology on Photo Usage

In section 4.3, the differences between conventional and digital photo usage discovered through the inquiries are described. In this section, key factors about how digital technology influences these photo usages are generalized accordingly as follows.

5.3.1 Digital photos for Sharing and Conventional Photos as Mementos

In previous section, digital photography and conventional photography have both shown their advantage and disadvantage. Because of their different attributes and applications, people differentiate the usage between conventional photos and digital photos. Digital cameras enable people to take digital photos without restraint. Digital photos are immaterial and take no room. Besides, sharing digital photos with distant family and friends is much easier than sharing conventional ones. Therefore, digital photos, which are taken freer and have the advantage of remote sharing, are used as convenient media for daily life experience sharing. On the other hand, being material, conventional photos would not disappear without reasons and are more reliable in keeping. Besides, annotating conventional photos is easier than annotating digital ones. This makes browsing and sharing conventional photos more

interesting and lively than browsing and sharing digital ones. For these reasons, conventional photos, which are more reliable in keeping and often well annotated, are relatively more suitable as mementos that preserve remembrance of people and the good old days.

5.3.2 Differences in Technology Acceptance between Family Members of Different Age There are differences in technology acceptance between family members of different age.

Young people often bring their digital cameras or camera phones with them and capture interesting moments in their daily life. Most of them are willing to try the innovation

functions of digital cameras, such as shooting short films and connecting the digital camera to the television for playing videos on the television screen. Young people rarely print their digital photos and are used to browse their photos on the computer. Most of them are familiar with computer applications. They share and exchange their digital photos with friends through uploading the photos to online file spaces and albums, or by transmitting the photos through MSN. Most of them do not reject to show their photos to the public on the Internet. On the other hand, some middle-aged people are still used to take photos with simple conventional Instamatic. They are unfamiliar with the innumerable functions of digital devices and afraid of causing errors in operation. Middle-aged people are used to browse printed photos. They prefer flipping printed photos to viewing digital ones in front of a computer screen. They share their photos with relatives and friends by flipping photo albums together, passing photos

functions of digital cameras, such as shooting short films and connecting the digital camera to the television for playing videos on the television screen. Young people rarely print their digital photos and are used to browse their photos on the computer. Most of them are familiar with computer applications. They share and exchange their digital photos with friends through uploading the photos to online file spaces and albums, or by transmitting the photos through MSN. Most of them do not reject to show their photos to the public on the Internet. On the other hand, some middle-aged people are still used to take photos with simple conventional Instamatic. They are unfamiliar with the innumerable functions of digital devices and afraid of causing errors in operation. Middle-aged people are used to browse printed photos. They prefer flipping printed photos to viewing digital ones in front of a computer screen. They share their photos with relatives and friends by flipping photo albums together, passing photos