Lying on your back with your arms tight to your body is actually a good sleeping position, as it helps maintain your spine in a straight line. Studies have shown that people who sleep like this may be quieter and more relaxed. It’s when you sleep with your arms down and very close to your body. This is a kind of a weird sleeping position, but very common. Anyone can explore the links posted on Instagram and Twitter profiles anyone can also screenshot photos without notifying the poster. Teenagers are not the sole users of these apps. When photos that are intended to be “risky” are posted online, the content is readily available to a global audience. I want to warn my generation and the generations to come of the imminent dangers prompted by “bold” postings. I have seen photos that should never have been shared on the internet. Anyone with a computer or cell phone can access these photos: parents, school officials, and college admissions officers included. These digital images can be anywhere from mildly suggestive to downright incriminating when they overtly exhibit illegal drug use, underage drinking, or child pornography. I have explored links to classmates’ profiles and viewed photos of liquor bottles, teenagers smoking, and young girls in lingerie.
VSCO has become a hub for younger people to post the photos that are too “bold” to share to ostensibly broader audiences on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. You don’t even need an account to view someone’s content, just the link to that user’s profile. Many users take advantage of this “privacy.” But nothing posted on VSCO is completely private. A superficial sense of privacy is perpetuated. Additionally, a user’s number of followers is unknown to everyone but that user. VSCO appeals to its users because there is no “like” button, eliminating the risk and chagrin of accidentally notifying a user that you’ve seen their photo at the slip of a finger.
This is most likely the intended purpose of VSCO: to create and share, encouraging amateur and professional photographers alike to be innovative and expressive. The goal is innocuous: to add an artistic flair to the idiosyncrasies of everyday life. Many young people use the app to post vibrant images of themselves and their friends picturesque scenes of skies and beaches their lives captured through a colorful lens. I can never expect what I may discover on a friend or classmate’s VSCO profile.