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| (Dream Time Events, 2013) |
A popular social hub is Facebook, a cyber heterotopia society of other
spaces (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook,
2001) who puts forth Foucault’s principals
of homophily, or common social attributes, and interactions with like-minded
individuals. Allen (2011) states that this space
is not governed by geography but by ‘relational effects of social
interaction’. These social interactions
have super connectors which due to the vast number of associations are powerful
in the own right (Benjamin, 2009; Kuttainen, 2016), these super connectors are not governed by geography, they could be
anywhere lurking in your network. They
may use group conformity to bend your will to the collective way before
acceptance into the group. This “virtual
people watching” space (Joinson , 2008) is safeguarded
by unseen arbitrators.
Moreover Allen (2011) cites Foucault who explains that social surveillance power
derives from being watched, therefore the power is derived by other user’s
presence in your space. When someone is
watching you we become self-censored in our own space and place of that
space. Giving users an impression of you
acceptable to the group. Allen, (2011) termed this associative power,
users formulate a view of what is acceptable to that particular social media
site.
So is Facebook impinging and superimposing on your lives? Suppressing
our true selves and any traces of individualism? I really do not think so, Foucault's “Capillaries of power” in
social surveillance is not hierarchal power, but power that is ever present
flowing between individuals and always in flux (Foucault, 1977; Foucault, 1982). So whose network will you offend? Who is going to unfriend you for your
individualistic views? (Noel, & Nyan, 2011) Who really cares?
Lecturer: Victoria Kuttainen
Tutor: Felise Goldfinch
Blog – 1
Word count: 328
References
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