Response 2 – CamB

If media shapes us, then what shape do we see through the media? How do the vehicles/technology of many-to-many media shape what kinds of selves are possible?

Pick 2 aut0botography projects and review thoroughly. How does each create a new and strange mirror on what it means to be human? What kind of self is possible, or reflected, or satirized, or created via the new technologies? For each project explain what the new tech is, and then how it shapes what kind of self is possible. Do you think race, gender, class, culture, age or other factors influence these new selves? Do the very poor have access to these new selves?

What kind is society is created by the proliferation of these new selves?

As you work, consider the ways your own self is portrayed, defined, or enabled through the technologies you use. (selfies, surveillance, iPhone credit cards, school IDs, etc)

As humans, we portray ourselves as whatever we want people to see us as, whether it’s an athlete, artist, etc. Fifteen years ago, we weren’t able to post pictures of ourselves on social media or posting something to our timelines so people can get a good idea about us without even meeting in person. Today, we use applications like Facebook and Instagram as a way to portray ourselves how we want people to see us. Being human means you have flaws because no one in the world is perfect whether you want to believe it or not. The big problem with today’s society is filtering images on social media; this is a problem because it sends mixed signals to the people seeing it so they don’t know the real you, they only know about what they can see online. Any type of “self” is possible and can be created through social media; if you want to be seen as an athlete, an artist, or a politician, you can post images and videos however you want to portray yourself to the people seeing the posts. It’s important to understand that this is only one part of yourself and not you as a whole.

Jennicam:

Jennicam was an interesting concept that was brought to attention when a girl decided to start filming her life and posting it online. All her fans could go online and watch her whenever they wanted and could see her do things that you don’t usually see people do during their day-to-day lives. Her fanbase got very big very fast, so she started a subscription-based website where she was paid through PayPal. This website changed Jenni’s personality because she was more focused on making her viewers happy and showing them what they want to see instead of showing them who she actually is as a person. This made Jenni lose her sense of self and made a self that was created based on what the viewers wanted to see, and not what she wanted to be. This was a new technology because of the way she broadcasted her life to the world, but the actual technology itself was not really new at all because it was just the power of the internet and some webcams. However, after a while, Jenni stopped broadcasting; she realized she was not happy and that she was being someone who she really isn’t just to please other people and not for herself. This made her put Jennicam to an end before it got even more out of control.

Life Sharing:

Eva and Franco Mattes came up with a very interesting idea with their personal home computer. They turned it into a public forum and allowed anyone to view all the information on their personal computer online. This in a similar way to Jennicam, took a lot of privacy away from Eva and Franco, because all this information was being shared with the entire world, and nothing in their life was kept a secret. The technology used in this project was nothing special just like the last one. They simply used just a computer and the power of the internet. This allows people to assume things about others which leads being judgmental about something that doesn’t even affect people personally. I think that if this was still up a running today, people would pick this person’s computer apart and use it against them. It’s a good thing it never got that far because it would have turned into something it was never supposed to be.