I'm pretty sure that I'm mainly responsible for all the weird and slightly irrelevant things posted to this blog, but alas, I read this op-ed piece in the Times and felt it was interesting and reminiscent of the "tourist's gaze," as well as our discussion of front-stage/back-stage performativity.
The Fakebook Generation: "The site is popular largely because it enables us to indulge our gazes anonymously."
While the essay (for some) may only tell us what we already know, I think the idea of performing ones conception of self, and at the same time, being an anonymous tourist in one's own life (or larger social life) is pretty fascinating, and perhaps is the most accurate description of the appeal of Facebook.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I never thought about it like that. Great op-ed, but I don't think the author has an accurate view of the privacy settings, though. Users (post-college at least) seem to be getting more savvy about internet privacy... after all, I'm sure any of us who have used Facebook have run up against privacy settings when trying to stalk, I mean look up, our ex-s. How about that for disrupting the gaze!
The privacy settings are brutal, to say the very least. There are some peopne who don't want to be watched, or don't want to be watched by you.
Or... they want to project themselves as the kind of people who don't necessarily embrace facebook wholeheartedly, and are trying to appear as reluctant members of an online community. (Because, if you were truly reluctant, you'd never be a part of such a thing).
However, I know first-hand the pains of disrupted gazing, and it does frustrate (though it is nearly always a road-block that one can find a way around if they are clever, and have way too much time on their hands).
Post a Comment