Facebook is an social media social media
platform that allows its user publish, text, images, videos and share these
forms of media among their friends. Technology has reached the point where you
can access Facebook almost anywhere, anytime. This means that an individual can
connect to the social network as much or as little as they like with no
restrictions.
The
near constant flow of information on Facebook allows its user to be updated
with what their friends and family are doing, down to the exact time and
location. Somebody who posts frequently on Facebook may reveal too much
information about themselves and shift the balance of power between them and
those they engage with on the social network. Facebook prevents its users from
knowing who or how many people have seen what they have posted. So if someone were
to say something that could be potentially harmful to themselves or others,
they would have no indication of how many people have seen it. I feel that the building
known, as The Panopticon mentioned in the lecture is a good analogy for
Facebook, as Facebook can see everything its users publish. If the analogy is
modified and the guard tower is replaced with a Facebook user that posts
frequently and the prisoners were replaced with the first individual’s friends
on Facebook, then we can see that those on the outside walls have more power
over the individual in the middle. The individual does not know who or how many
people are watching them and as a result, each friend knows more about the
individual, than the individual knows about their friends.
I identify
with those who do not share an abundance of information but still engage with
Facebook just to see what others are doing. I tend to focus less on what I am
saying and more on how it would be received by my friends. I noticed that
(Turkle,1995) described something similar when discussing the Panopticon,
saying:
Individuals
learn to look at themselves through the eyes of the prison guard. Foucault has
pointed out that this same kind of self- surveillance has extended from the
technologies of imprisonment to those of education and psychotherapy. We learn
to see ourselves from a teacher’s or a therapist's point of view, even in their
absence.(Turkle,1995)
This relates
to my experience of Facebook as others have more power and dictate how I present
myself on social media.
References:
Turkle,S. (1995). Life On Screen. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
I agree with how you have used the analogy of the Panopticon to describe the format of Facebook. I feel as though people are often misled by the privacy settings that allow us to believe we have complete control over whom and how our publications can be seen. Because of the way we interact with the social network; it is our account, therefore we exercise our power; which has been discussed elsewhere (Allen, 2003. p.4). When in fact we may still be observed by a wider audience, particularly when we are emotionally driven to post content that can provide extensive information or alternatively be adverse. We tend to be more concerned with promoting ourselves and what we think about other and/or current events, we forget about the type of content we are sharing and how this can consequently effect the way we present ourselves and how others will see us.
ReplyDeleteThat is not to say people should stop posting but should be mindful about the content.
I agree to an extent with what you are implying, especially your analogy of the panopticon in relation to how users view Facebook and its content. When you mention Turkle's idea of the panopticon and relate it towards one's friends knowing more about them than what they know of themselves, i believe it can also go in a total opposite direction. The idea of self-surveillance in this instance may connect to users being mindful of what they share or post, however I believe that it may also relate to one tailoring their posts to what they imagine others want to view. Power can be a strong influence towards the way people may do something and in this instance it is possible for Facebook users to change their normal genre of writing to suit what they believe would be more appreciative in the social network world. "In a virtual space, you are not the only person constructing your identity" (Van Luyn, 2015). On social networks such as Facebook, it is highly likely that we all construct our online identity based on other's inputs and opinions leading my view to be slightly altered to how your perception on the Panopticon and self-surveillance relates to social networks.
ReplyDeleteReference
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002: Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Lecture 3: Space and Identity: Genre and Transformation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au