Blog 4: Blurry Lines between the Real and Virtual
When using social networking sites, such as Instagram, we
are creating a virtual self-narrative. According to Van Luyn (2015),
self-narratives are constructs for a particular purpose and context. Van Luyn
also argues that some self-narratives are more accepted than others and certain
narratives that don’t match the norm are silenced. The ‘norm’ for Instagram is
constructed by the users, through liking and following particular pages. This empowers
the ‘norm’ and disempowers users that sway from the ‘norm.’
An interesting concept is whether users are projecting their
fake/real or authentic/inauthentic selves on the social networking site. Two
YouTube videos, How to be Instagram famous and Instagram in real life,
demonstrate how difficult it is to get the ‘right Instagram photo.’ From watching
these videos it is clear that Instagram users portray a highly edited and
inauthentic version of themselves. However, it is important to note that
Instagram itself is a virtual platform in which users do have the ability to
portray their authentic self; it is actually the societal expectations that
lead to users projecting an inauthentic self.
McNeill (2012) argues that “the “I” becomes significant only
though its networks connections.” (p. 72). This idea leads to the relationship
between post-humanism and social networking sites. Post-humanism challenges the
boundaries between the human and the natural world and the mechanical and the
technological world. These collapsed boundaries are represented in Haraway’s
idea of the cyborg (Van Luyn, 2015). The cyborg is a hybrid machine organism
and is a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.
Does that mean that
as frequent users of social media sites, that we are each an example of the
cyborg? Maybe the arbitrary boundary between virtuality and reality will
continue to give rise to questions of authenticity and inauthenticity of the
self, until the virtual and real world are combined as one…
Reference List:
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in
network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto/biography. Biography, 35(1), 65-82.
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 6 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu/jcu.edu.au
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 6 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu/jcu.edu.au
Image Credits:
How to become
Instagram famous [Image]. (2014). Retrieved from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-c-heXyy8KIGdmzB8F5dheG2hetj51B_gRCn3ttEY2i-dW2k_p-wNLa63Df8OILnsrObexHrpbd_otvuqlxTIXEhYKbWZjXS59oVoUEqezpBlIZT6WoAsvXSsr1Btmdv-nvc_jDorvfmG/s1600/instagram.jpg
Nice blog!
ReplyDeleteWe are now posthumanist machines as our consciousness is enmeshed onto various social media software. Within this technocultural product of 21 C ecosystem, the humanist real/fake, authentic/inauthentic model has power to create or destroy individual identity. User's feedback and 'normalising' may sway behaviour online.
(Patrick-Weber, 2014, p1) argues that as a modality of power it is outdated, as it may now be essential to "embrace our dividual survivor status as the new 'authentic' self," that is, to split our identities into many, online and offline, and not be "shamed by society as being 'inauthentic' and therefore morally corrupt." Patrick-Weber cites McCarthy's statement: "traumatic event of materiality . . . a dividual self with no inner core of truth, but many."
Essentially, not caring about what other cyborg's think is a way to survive online experience.
Retake power back from the crowd to retain individual status!
Reference
Patrick-Weber, C., (2014). Digital technology, trauma, and identity: Redefining the authentic self of the 21st century: Technoculture: An Online Journal of Technology in Society. (4) (2014).