Filters are running your life, without you even knowing it! They come in many forms and influence us in many different ways. Cultural and technical filters are everywhere, it just takes a bit of consideration to see them.
Cultural filters are learned throughout our childhood and upbringings. Culture is defined as the ideas and self-concepts of a group or society in a particular place and time, passing from one generation to the next (sociologydictionary.org). These filters are the subtle “… rules and conventions that guide us…” (Rettberg 24). An example of this is what types of photos we put into an album. These pictures are often of birthdays, family events, vacations, or other happy moments in our lives. The albums rarely depict upset or angry people, tragic events, or horrifying images. This is due to the cultural filters we have developed. The angry or upset child will likely have been a common occurrence, with a decent chance of being photographed. However, we filter these moments out of our albums, in order to remember the happy times and conform to our cultural expectations. Most of the time, this occurs without even considering it. Other cultural influences include; where you grew up, your economic status, or your religion. The neighborhood, city, or state you grew up in can drastically change how you filter your life. This could be the types of food you like or consider “normal” for certain meals. In the northern states we tend to eat oatmeal as our hot cereal with breakfast. In the southern states, they eat grits. While they are similar, they have very different textures and tastes. Your economic status applies a filter on what you can buy or feel is too expensive. As your economic standing changes, this filter could change greatly. Different religions have different practices. These practices filter what we consider rude, blasphemous, or our thoughts on afterlife. Cultural filters are generally more subtle than other filters but, they guide our lives in many ways.
Technical filters are those imposed on us by technology or formatting. Rettberg uses the example of a baby book in this chapter. She describes how a book will give you prompts and specific areas to fill in as your baby ages. Rettberg states (22) “A preformatted baby journal can be seen as a technological filter. It is a conventional codex book, which means you cannot easily add very large photos or video or sound, and it has written prompts and spaces allocated to specific kinds of photographs. You can tear out pages or glue photographs over prompts you don’t want to use, but the journal does provide very clear rules for how you should represent your baby’s first year.” Some modes of expression are even more rigid. Many smartphone apps, computer programs, and other forms of media can not be altered in any way. These technological filters are more obvious than cultural filters but, they play a large part in shaping our daily lives. Another example could be that of an essay assignment. Your instructor may put specifications on your assignment such as length, content, spacing, or even font. These requirements adjust how the essay is presented and what kind of audience we may be writing to. Our social media sites impose certain technological filters as well. Instagram, for instance, is more of a place to post pictures, the amount of text you can add to your pictures is limited. A blog on the other hand, has fewer restrictions on the text, and instead imposes layout filters. As you can see, depending on the technology or media you are using, the technical filters can be vastly different.
It can be stressful to think of filters as running you life. They aren’t, however. Filters simply provide you with the guidelines and framework on how to do things. Choosing to alter, or completely ignore, a filter is a good way express yourself.
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