CONCEPTS FREEDOM, IDENTITY, AUTHENTICITY
A controversial attempt at defending an institution often deemed as exploitative, by considering the potentiality for change in marketing strategy due to the proliferation and availability of interpretative consumer choices within social media culture.
Central Thesis:
We have entered a ‘Digital Age’ new and peculiar to us and as such our basic system of rights needs to be updated to accommodate for this new age. The investigation into free speech on the internet provides compelling insight into this claim, with free speech doctrine not only being proved ineffective and outdated on the online medium but actually, I will argue, free speech is in danger.
“The world will not stand still and let us enjoy our freedoms. It will continually make itself anew, and as it does, we must consider the ever new methods by which it may be augmented or curtailed” Balkin (2001)
Identity will be considered in terms of the construction process and the impact that social media and the online community can have on this process in accordance with the theories listed
MacIntyre-Narrative Embedding through a socio-historical understanding. Tradition is thus key.. Dangers arise in consideration of the anonymity of the internet and fantasy of online environment distracting from this.
Giddens-Acknowledgment of importance of social background. self as a reflexive process.. Is it possible that the world of social media and online profile building provides guidance now? Does this then promote cultural relativism
Habermas -Theory of Communicative Action and Discourse Ethics. Reason amongst humans is considered to not be based in objective terms. Discussion key to understanding the self. But necessitate compliance the Rules of Discourse .
Trilling- Differentiation between Sincerity and Authenticity. Rejection of sincerity as only the role of the actor for the gratification of others.. Does the online identity building epidemic loose this authenticity and re-establish the pressure of those forming their identities in the realm of sincerity. The formatting of stating elements of our identity independently and publicly creates sincerity hoops.
Borgmann-Recognition of the role social media in modernity and the advent of Hyper-reality as a result. We become overly connected and this results in irrational behaviour and affections. We only end up disappointed at the lack of fulfilment of this strange unreal reality.
Dreyfus- Online identity formation and Social Media exist in a risk free environment. This can cause issues with personhood through desire to exist in a simulated environment and never transcend to interpersonal relationships in reality.
Risk and Potential Difficulties- Risks exist in the realms of the vulnerability of the unestablished self. This is via the advent of social consensus and a lack of objective rationality, the potential of manipulation in unequal partners, loss of interpersonal communication and inability to create relationships
There is a requirement for the self to be established prior to online engagement and necessity of return to Trilling’s Sincerity as the resulting conclusion and means from which the identity can benefit from Social Media.
Is the intermediation of identity and presentation, that is so predominant on Facebook, being prescribed as confrontational and uncompromising interaction OR is there a discrepancy between the “online” & “offline” self?
How do we identify ourselves and others on Facebook?
Do we alter our identities- for better or worse- as we re-create ourselves online?
Facebook links millions of people, in new spaces. It is changing the way we think, the form of our communities, our very identities.
If Facebook has such a significant influence over users, does it have an influence on how we identify ourselves and other people?
In Heidegger’s essay entitled, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, he studies modern technology. He attempts to prepare us for a “free relationship” with the existence of technology. However can we have “free-relationship” social networking sites?
“The strange feature of the Facebook friendship raises an immediate question: is it really a “friendship” at all?”
‘From boredom and necessity, man wishes to exist socially.’ Nietzsche
“A genuine friend is someone who loves or likes another person for the sake of that other person.” Aristotle
Taking in Aristotle’s account of friendship would the relationships on Facebook be justified?
For my project, I researched into the way the internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook and Second Life, have impacted on the contemporary project of self-identity. Does the virtual world encourage us to maintain our real identity, or instead create artificial and fake identities? From this, I looked at how the internet and virtual identities are used as a means of control and power over others. The internet is so readily available to everyone in our modern world, and people are beginning to communicate with strangers online, yet unable to determine who their real identity actually is.
THE PHILOSOPHY
BAUMAN – his concept of ‘Liquid Modernity’ and how this has affected our self-identity.
GIDDENS – his theory of ‘Reflexive Modernity’ and how it has caused individuals to engage in a reflexive project of the self. Identity as reflexive and fluid.
ADORNO – his philosophy on the ‘Culture Industry’. The ‘reification’ of language and concept of ‘identity thinking’.
HEIDEGGER – the concepts of ‘authenticity and inauthenticity. The understanding of human life as finite – the internet allows identity to extend into the infinite.
CONCEPTS
– The historical development of Identity. Looking at how it has changed since our digitalised society
– Identity as the process of ‘becoming’ not simply ‘being’
– The Real vs the Artificial ( the real world vs the virtual world) (the real self vs the protean/virtual self)
– Authentic identity vs inauthentic identity
– The virtual world as infinite vs the finitude of the real human body
– Power and manipulation of online identity
– The issue of trust
My project aims to demonstrate how manipulated we have become by social media. It questions, in what ways and how much does modern social media affect our lives? Is it a harmless distraction, or has it become too ingrained within our daily lives?
Social media is in my opinion, part of a popular culture that as modern individuals, we desperately want to fit in with. Social media is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives. In my project I shall also explore the need we feel as modern individuals to be a part of mass culture and to avoid alienation. Consequently, I shall argue, social media holds a great influence over even the smallest parts of our daily lives. The things we observe and gain from social media in all its forms affect and influence us in a number of ways, occasionally positively but also negatively. Its influence promotes a certain way of life, a life by which we are largely consumed and engulfed by the internet. I shall use Adorno’s concept of mass culture to support my investigation into social media as deception, along with Deleuze’s view on new technology. To conclude I shall use Van Dijk’s view that social and media networks are indeed shaping the prime mode of organisation and stand as the most important structures of modern society, adding to this that we have become almost too dependent on social media, and that we must be aware of the dangers of social media as a whole.
THE TWO DIMENSIONAL SELF: The way in which people use Facebook as a ‘second life’ is compromising our attempt to discover an authentic self-understanding. Facebook provides us with a ‘flattened’, ‘two-dimensional’ identity, where our account could be seen as a ‘living advert’ in which we only promote the positive aspects of our life and hide away the bad. When we fill in forms at the Doctor’s, we do not claim that is our whole self. However, our attributes, basic details and interests wholly define our ‘Facebook Identity’. This leads us to the question, how are we able to act freely and reasonably whilst retaining this false reality?
HOW DOES FACEBOOK MAKE A PROFIT?: Facebook is a free service that is accessible to all Internet users. Therefore, in order to maintain this service and to create a successful business, Facebook provides us with advertisements. It tempts us with products we didn’t even know we wanted. Facebook uses targeted advertising through the knowledge of our personal details and interests.
TARGETED PHILOSOPHY AND KANT: With a consideration for Kant’s position, one could argue that presenting the subject with targeted advertisements is not immoral as we are able to judge and act upon what we encounter in life, freely and through reason. Through a consideration for Kant’s moral philosophy, I will aim to deduce the extent to which we are manipulated to buy products placed upon us in Facebook.
SPONSORED STORY AND KANT: If I choose to ‘like’ a brand’s page, then I can be used in a sponsored story on one of my friend’s pages. This is a service that one cannot opt out of and brings into question the idea that the user is fundamentally exploited as a ‘human advert’. Facebook argue that when I like something, I am associating myself with that specific brand or service. However, in my project, I will be arguing whether it is ethically right to use others as a means to making a greater profit for the company.
DEATH OF ADVERTISING? AND LEVINAS: Levinas states that most art is fundamentally materialistic in that matter overpowers form. Through a consideration for his philosophy, I will provide a critical evaluation of the artistic nature of this type of advertising. Also, I will discuss whether Facebook has resulted in the death of advertising or instead it is simply part of the natural evolution of the revolutionary marketing strategies of the 21st century.
Heidegger: Facebook promotes authenticity by offering people the chance to assume responsibility over their identity and realise that they are in a ‘self-making-situation’.
Sartre: Facebook promotes authenticity by revealing that there is in fact a lack of identity when presenting a self due to the fact that one always has the freedom to choose to move beyond their current situation
Lyotard: Facebook promotes inauthenticity because individuals are no longer concerned with developing a sense of personal identity that is a true representation of them but only with developing an identity that will perform well within their social network in order to increase their social capital
Foucault: Facebook promotes inauthenticity because people are not concerned with developing an identity that is a true representation of them but only with conforming to a certain ideal of how a person ought to be in order to be accepted and not excluded by their social network
It is estimated that there are 150 million active Facebook users worldwide. • Once a website aimed solely at students at Harvard University as a means of keeping in contact with classmates, Facebook has grown exponentially since its inception in February 2004. • Recently it has excelled in the 35‐54 year age demographic with a reported 279% increase in users in this age bracket. The worry is that, in domino effect of sorts through the generations, it will soon be a reality that everyone who has regular access to a computer will be communicating through a website and human contact and interaction will be a seldom practiced pastime. With the arrival of the mobile telephone came a whirlwind of irreversible change. Advancements in Telecommunications opened the gateway to a so‐called ‘Thumb culture’ in which communication and media interaction are all dictated by some form of digital interface. It seems as though, with each technological step forward, we take an interpersonal step back. For example, first there were phone conversations to close friends and family, then came text messaging, a far less personal way of communicating but, nonetheless it was a progression, or perhaps digression, that was mutually embraced by contacts that once knew each other well enough to interact verbally. From this stemmed the birth of instant messaging as a cheaper but very similar alternative. The concept of social networking through sites such as Myspace and Facebook is a commendable one. They aim to maintain correspondence with people that would have otherwise slipped off one’s communication radar. But the reality is that our strong relationships become diluted by becoming ‘Facebook friends’ with people we would call mere acquaintances. With the addition of Facebook chat in April 2008, Facebook became a ‘one‐stop shop’ for all our communication needs. Engaging in duologues on Facebook meant that their monopolisation have become so conglomerate that face‐to‐face conversations end up actively referring to Facebook. With a limitless online friend capacity, people with thousands of friends either have to spread themselves very thinly across all these people, or spend hours and hours chained to a computer to maintain a valid friendship. In order to explore this territory, I will be looking at the work of J.G. Ballard and Guy Debord as well as looking into Communication Theory. My aim for this project is to investigate where we go from here. Will face to face, or even verbal communication exist in the future? Or will technology sever our personal relationships to such an extent that meeting with people will be simply a distant memory; something the future generations will dismiss as ’something their grandparents did’?
This project will look at the Sorrows of Young Werther in Conjunction with an example of emotionally hardcore internet blogging in order to establish the significance of emotional intensity seen today in youth groups. The sorrows of young Werther depicts a fictional 18th century character that holds many similarities to the type of life many modern youths aspire too. Primarily this project is concerned with exploring the emotionally hardcore movement that is taking place, and how this will affect future social change. Werther channelled his emotional intensity through art and literature, using it as a way of expressing his anguish. The emotionally hardcore individual uses art and music as a form of expression, and literature as a way to ‘blog’ this way of life, through means of fictional and factual storytelling, and also poetry. Using concepts of alienation, aesthetics, romanticism and existentialism, this project will analysis the emotionally hardcore individual, society’s objections and the emotionally hardcore movement as a whole. In historical format this project will look at how the sorrows of young Werther symbolises an apparent social theme of alienation from the masses. Secondary to the above, the thoughts of Schiller will be examined with reference to romanticism as a whole. This hopefully will shed light on the importance of emotion, passion and Romance within. Hopefully this project will look at the emotionally hardcore movement in a way that has never been undertaken before, therefore examining a section of social progression that is personal and individual to me.
Aims and Objectives • To being by establishing and exploring the shift towards Capitalism and more importantly, how and why it came about. • To show, through the work of Deleuze and Guattari, how MySpace is a product of Capitalism. • To illustrate how and why society has changed with the production of MySpace. Overview of Territory: MySpace is a social networking website which consists primarily of an interactive, user-submitted network of friends. The site consists of personal profiles with photos, music, videos, and blogs, attracting a billion page views every day. The company consists of over 106 million accounts and gains over 230,000 new registrations a day. MySpace is currently the fifth most popular English speaking website in the world, while 82% of online visits to social networking websites are made to MySpace. Key Change: The redistribution of labour with the move to the city saw a new emerging middle class with the bourgeois controlling the factories and their profit. The old hierarchy and values of the feudal system are replaced by money which operates as the universal source and bearer of all value. The emerging economic system of a world where money is the centre of social organisation is Capitalism. Capitalism creates desire in a fundamentally unpredictable way in a society where fortunes are made and lost. Through the use of marketing and advertising, Capitalism is able to unleash desire and channel it towards our fixation with money itself in a society structured around the capacity to earn. Philosophical Concepts To Be Explored • MySpace as a rhizome • Pre-personal desires • The processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization • The major and minor movements • Identity. Sources: The Key source for my investigation will be Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus. In addition to this, I will refer to Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Territory: Experiments with the movement and the language of attraction have been conducted in real social situations and in virtual situations. I have taken as my territory the streets, shops, bars and clubs of Newcastle as well as setting up a myspace account in which to test theories and discover laws. Objectives: This project is entitled ‘A Philosophy…’ because it is not the philosophy of attraction. I have looked at the topic from within my immediate, personal experience. My objective is to discover how attraction works for an average male, like myself, and from here to perhaps discover certain general rules or overarching systems. Sources: David DeAngelo: ‘Attraction is not a Choice’ and other works. Neil Strauss: ‘The Game’ and related ‘Mystery Method’ materials. Kierkegaard: ‘Either/Or’ especially the Seducer’s Diary. Hegel: ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’. Levinas: ‘Totality and Infinity – An Essay On Exteriority’.
In my project this year I have decided to investigate the area of youth culture in Twenty-First Century Britain. What are the factors which make our younger generation feel so misunderstood by their elders? Using various media sources I have drawn upon examples of contemporary British culture where the younger generation seem to be veering off any track of recognised social development. These areas include crime, identity, media, artistic expression, drug use, gangs and many more. In my final project I hope to find some links between the changes in youth culture as we know it and some philosophical concepts which I have studied during my degree. The first section of my project will concentrate on the growing gap between the attitudes and characteristics of the older generation and the younger generation. I hope to use Nietzsche’s work on the master and slave morality to explain the reversal of the attitudes towards the elderly from a stance of respect for experience and wisdom to one of burden and frustration. It seems we now value the progress, originality and vitality present in the youth of today as far more important than anything the older generation can offer unlike fifty years ago when children were taught to respect their elders. It seems this has resulted in a loss of communication and understanding between the two groups, where the older group was once seen as dominant and the younger group as passive, we now encourage the youth of today and the elderly are either forgotten about by the state, or at least take a secondary role in society. The next section will address the growing need for our youth to differentiate themselves into identity groups depending on their fashion, music, consumer or social tastes. Whether it is choosing a particular group of friends or enjoying a special past-time the younger generation seem intent on defining every individual into a certain group or trend. Such examples as “Goths”, “Chavs”, “Hippies” or “Ras” are common in most school playgrounds. I will also look at internet sites such as “Myspace.com” and other blog sites and using the work of Vattimo and his “Transparent Society” text I hope to gain a better understanding of the growing need for personal narratives in the Twenty-First Century and why our younger generation require these categories to “fit in” with society. The final section of my project will deal with the growing concern towards the anti-social behaviour displayed by the youth of today. This will include all aspects of daily life from truancy, graffiti, theft, drug use, to more serious crimes such as assault and rape. Why is it we feel the youngsters of Britain these days have a lack of respect for authority? Could it be linked with some changing social dynamics put forward by thinkers such as Beck and Giddens, or the increased pressure put on our children to follow a globally fast paced, informational, consumer driven society? In my final project I hope to address these issues and find some answers to some of the most pressing issues concerning Twenty-First Century Britain.