Each issue we canvass the views of three thought leaders on a single subject. This issue: has social media helped or hindered society?
Thomas Woodham-Smith
As a child, Sunday evenings were sacrosanct. Costume drama on TV, for the whole family, was an almost religious observance. We didn’t know it, but we were creating a shared experience that would remain as a memory bond throughout our lives. Now in public as well as in private we may sit or stand close to each other, but we remain miles apart as our eyes and thoughts are glued to our devices.
And yet, it is remarkable how thousands of people posting makes for millions of connections. A friend once said to me he loved something I posted so much — he liked it. Sometimes language gets twisted around.
Right now, Instagram is the current favourite, but it may not last. Ephemerality is the key here. While we all adore — to the point of addiction — these fleeting images of people, their food, their interests and even their obsessions, it leaves me feeling troubled by the oxymoron that we are brought together globally by the access and yet pushed apart by the power and prevalence of these intoxicating streams of data. We need our devices to live and work these days, but I feel nostalgia for a world of shared human experience, even if it was together in front of a screen.
Thomas Woodham-Smith is co-founder of The Treasure House Fair.
Victoria Lajer
Occasionally, our team might publish an image of a particular stamp or coin on our Instagram account, and someone will reach out regarding something similar of their own, passed down in a collection from their parent or grandparent. We get to hear a small part of their personal stories, and they might learn the incredible story behind the item.
This summer, we will be auctioning an extremely rare item, with some of the proceeds going to the Ukraine humanitarian relief efforts — a Congressional Medal of Honor (the US equivalent of the British Victoria Cross). Because it’s such a globally important piece, social media will play an important part of telling its extraordinary story.
Safeguarding, security and mental health are undeniable issues relating to social media. But on the upside, it allows us to share stories and knowledge and to connect.
Victoria Lajer is CEO of auctioneers Stanley Gibbons and Baldwin’s.
Silvia Karman Cubiñá
As a curator, social media is invaluable: it allows me to “travel” to far away exhibitions such as the Yokohama Triennial in Japan, or the Sydney Biennial in Australia. I can also follow artists around the world before I see their works in person, even engaging with them from afar. Unlike the impersonality of a website, social media comes to you and one is able to engage with the work and communicate with the artist.
Like the “father of video art”, Nam June Paik (whom we are presenting now), I share his optimistic approach to technology’s interconnectedness: we can reach individuals with different values, perspectives, cultures and experiences, and bring them together around art.
As a museum community in Miami Beach we can see exhibitions and be exposed to artists everywhere in the world, regardless of one’s ability to be there physically. This is a priceless opportunity.
Silvia Karman Cubiñá is executive director, The Bass, Miami Beach.
This article originally appeared in Billionaire's Longevity Issue. To subscribe, click here.
