From the reel to the screen an approach to the uses and social functions of photography in digital immigrants

The photographic medium has been altered by the digital process, especially accompanied by the popularization of smartphones equipped with high-quality cameras and the development of social media platforms on Web 2.0. The practices and meanings that involve digital photography seem to differ from those of the analogical culture. In this article, applying an exploratory approach, we seek to examine the configurations that emerge around the digital photography, with special attention to its uses and social functions, compared to the time of analogical dominance. In this sense, non-professional photographers, aged between 35 and 50 and considered digital immigrants, have been taken as the target population. Following a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews with photo-elicitation have been carried out for an approach to the key reflection spaces in relation to the study phenomenon. Results highlight changes in production, storage, distribution and even remembrance of photographs. The camera, now attached to the smartphone, has allowed photography to become another element of everyday life by being present in all spaces and, indeed, new ways of using it appear. The act of photographing is increasingly linked to the use of social media platforms, where online and fleeting photography takes precedence over paper photography as a synonym for memory. Communication precedes commemoration.