The concept of relaying history has not change, but its delivery methods have. In symbolic terms, quilting as a form of sharing family events and experiences has evolved because today’s quilt does not involve a needle and thread. Rather the sewing of a quilted frame takes place electronically which then becomes part of the social media fabric. A family’s history once woven in a tapestry has morphed into Facebook postings that communicate to the cyber world a subscriber’s story through on-screen sections of “likes,” location updates, photos, status updates, etc.
I see quilting as traditional commonplace for its (family) members who shared in milestones. The stitched frames represented hours of bonding and socialization within a community, especially among its female members. Quilting also created a generational template for daughters to carry on. The nature of the activity was just as symbolic as it was admirable. Admirable in the commitment and vision it took to sew the colored threads. Symbolic in a way the interlocking frames represented how personal the people and events were to the quilter(s). The embroidered images often characterized a family’s sentimental journey that usually illustrated a birth or marriage.
These days, any Facebook “friend” and his or her musings can be deleted, thus forgotten, by the click of a mouse. The ability to edit an uploaded photo’s caption allows for customizing and updating the context and meaning of a “quilted square.” No thread to hem in any sense of permanence. Furthermore, a person’s Facebook page symbolizes a finished quilt; comments and photos form the woven squares that provide its viewers the artifacts to multiple narratives. As people connect more to social media, including myself, we become quilters too; whether we realize it or not.
It's so cool to cast Facebook as useful - like a quilt. I think we often see it as a waste of time, but it really also can be an archive, a place to nurture relationships, and a place to explore identities.
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