Response 2- PeterB

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 autbotography 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)

We create this strange mirror of “self” to be specific:  we portray ourselves online to be fraternity stars, party animals, young academics, athletes, so on and so forth. What has formed with the coming of new technologies is a new layer of humanity. Before, we couldn’t tell/show the world through videos/images “this is who I am/want to be known as.” Today, we do it on social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram. What is important to note is that these portrayals of ourselves are NOT all encompassing, they are simply the most desired part of ourselves we want to be seen. This newly formed layer hides our inadequacies and flaws,so really they are not human. Being human means being flawed– after all no person is perfect. Therefore, they are fragments of our humanity, faux images of our perceived self. Truly any type of “self” is possible (can be created) through social media; if you want to be seen as an athlete, an artists, a frat guy, or a young politician, you can post images/videos accordingly. What is important to note is that this is only a portion of yourself. No human is simply just an athlete or a politician: posting photos or videos portraying yourself as one says to the world, this is what I want to be known as. As stated in the last sentence, the self that you want to be seen or known as is reflected on new technologies, such as Instagram, because we are only putting out a concentrated, focused version of ourselves, we can satirize this.

Jennicam:

Jennicam was an interesting concept that came into light when a girl decided to start filming her life and posting it online. Her fans could go online and watch her whenever they wanted, and could see her do things that you usually do not see people do on their own time. Her numbers started to grow and the amount of people watching was at such a big number that everything changed. She then started a subscription based website where she was paid through paypal. This changed Jenni as a person, because she was more interested in pleasing her viewers, and showing them what they want to see instead of showing them who she actually is. She lost her sense of self, in herself. She created a self that was created based on what the viewers wanted to see, not what Jenni wanted to be. This was a new technology in a way of broadcasting her life to the world, but the actual tech used was not that new, it was just webcams and the use of the internet. However, after a while Jenni stopped broadcasting. She realized she was not happy, she realized that she was being the person she was for other people and not for herself.

Life Sharing:

Eva and Franco Mattes came up with a very interesting idea with their home computer. They decided to turn it into a public forum and allow everyone and anyone to view their personal computer online. This included their photos, their emails, bank statements, literally everything that was on their computer was able to be seen by anyone that had a connection to the internet. This in a similar way to Jennicam, took a sense of privacy away from Eva and Franco, because all this information was being shared with the world, nothing was hidden. The technology used in this project was nothing special just like the last, just a computer and a connection to the internet. This type of project allows others to assumes things about these people because they are able to see things that have to do with money, and things along this line, allowing unneeded judgement. I think that if this was a thing today, people would pick this person’s computer apart and expose them in the most harmful ways, turning it into something that it is not.