Modernity, Spectatorship, Power

My most self-conscious moments tend to be when my suitemates and neighbors start talking about their family life or really fun-sounding traditions, etc, etc, and I begin to think about how different and less-positive my past familial experiences have been.

For ad: display an intimate but comfy space in which 7 to 10 people can talk freely about their lives and relate well to each other, in an manner one could even call excitatory. The space should consist of three sofas, a television on in the background, and a table, possibly with a disgruntled deck of cards that's clearly been used, but is not currently in use. Now is the time for reminiscing. People tend to shout over each other in proclamation of how awesome the things they do/did with family and friends are. The camera pans across the room as they discuss their fun, sometimes even jumping to certain individuals who become enthused enough to interject with their own tales. After a while, it's clear that one member of the couch community has remained silent for a good while, and so they community initiates the gaze as the camera pans to the leftmost seat on one of the couches. The individual struggles to come up with some sort of summer camp, some holiday tradition that hasn't collapsed due to family deaths or even just something moderately happy that can be related in some way. Perspiration forms on the forehead, the brow furrows, and the distress is clear from the individuals face that he is a black sheep, clearly thinking of unsatisfying memories. Some small mention is made, and the group awkwardly accepts this as tribute before continuing with their excited conversation...

Blog 9 week 5 Modernity,Spectatorship, Power

I feel most self conscious when I am doing an exercise or using a machine at the gym. I feel as if I am on display and as though people notice every little nuance of my movement. Sometimes I feel that people notice every little droplet of sweat that rolls off my body, even though they don't.

A product advertisement that would work well with this situation would be some sort of enhancement supplement. First, I would enter the gym as the subject of everyone's gaze. My gait would be very calculated and self conscious as I feel people's eyes running over my awkward movement. Next, the camera pans to me doing an exercise with which I have a lot of trouble and people are noticing my strife. Since people are noticing my frustration and poor performance I resort to a little help from an "absolutely essential" supplement. Self conscious and obviously frustrated with my lack of strength I open my gym bag. I then pull out a large bright green drink container that is an enhancement supplement. Then an announcer's voice chimes in saying,"Can't seem to find that extra edge in the gym? Want to increase your strength, vasodialation, and looks? Well get a Monster Muscle! It's not a work out withour Monster Muscle! Then the Camera pans to my ,now, muscular fingers ripping off the lid and taking a drawn out 3 second gulp followed by a sigh of refreshment. After this gulp my body has a glow and miraculously women begin to look at me and whisper about me. Now, very self confident I walk over to another machine, load up the heaviest weight, and pull out ten reps with ease. The camera pans out again to a shot of the Monster Muscle container resting atop my bag with me in the background confidently entertaining a group of attractive females. This pariopticon would allow people a view into my life simulataeously allowing them to level with my feelings of inadequacy until I use that special product. The words "It's not a workout without Monster Muscle" flash across the screen and the ad ends.

This ad, like most ads, thrives on tapping into people's self conscious worries. The ad implies that we are not inherently sufficient and cannot function at our optimum without certain products. Once we have the product we immediately become self confident, effective, and powerful. Essentially, what this ad and most ads like it are selling the idea of incompleteness, an inherent lack of perfection, or inadequacy. They are selling you the idea that your are not wholly complete and effective without their product. It is shameful how slimy, yet effective, this type of advertising is in the US today.

Response to "Facebook Suicide"

I, like most other people, have a facebook profile and check it regularly...too regular would certainly be the most honest answer. I've attempted facebook suicide multiple times in the past, and I've been dead to the online community for weeks at a time, for two months even on one occasion. My personal revelations about facebook center around the fact that the entire thing is a corporate scam, and I hate that the information I input into a site that should be about social networking is essentially sold out to advertisement agencies who then try to market their worlds to me based on my own interests.

I certainly wouldn't agree with the author of this article entirely; I think facebook can be used pretty responsibly. I may be spending a fair bit of time on facebook these days (still less than average I imagine), but it's always just there as a type of Internet background noise in my life. I don't find myself consciously "facebook stalking" any person(s) or, quite honestly, even caring very much about all of the garbage that people tend to post about themselves. In my opinion, the primary issue with facebook and its user base isn't necessarily the narcissism (for some percentage of users it might be), it's the desire to pile friends on left and right, and then try to find out what any of them are doing in the constant stream of posts - posts from people who you really don't know that well, nor will you ever. I think striking a balance in managing your community size is the key to a good facebook experience, and having 700+ friends as a normal human being isn't the way to go.

The Gaze

The moments in which I feel the most self concious is simply when I arrive late to class. When i know that I will be late. I tend to walk a lot faster using all my walking energy, thus creating sweat once I a take a seat. I feel self concious as I feel everyone's gaze on me since I am one of the last to come in. Especially when I walk in through the front door of the classroom I feel as if every single persons questioning gaze is on me since they did take the effort of coming in early as ,I, as well a determined student, finds on a daily basis how to come in late to class.

If this were to become a tv advertisement, there would have to be a classroom full of gazing eyes all towards that one single girl who walks ten minutes late into class panting and sweating as she did jus speed walk. The class would become suprisingly quiet as she walks in, signs in on the sign up sheet, and makes rude nises simply to get into her seat as she does need to go through people to get into that one single seat left.

Facebook Suicide

In my own personal point of view, I feel as if those who are facebook members make facebook as important or non important as they want it to be. It may induce self-obsession, yet some, at least I do, create and continue using facebook to reconnect, or simply connect on a daily basis with old and new friends. I feel as if this article has replaced any type of pros towards facebook to only introduce some of the cons when in reality we, facebook members, how we use facebook on a day to day basis whether it is for a few minutes or for long periods of time.

Some things which I would lose if i would commit "facebook suicide" is all my elementary friends whom I had lost contact with since sixth grade. Thanks to facebook I was able to re-find them and reconnect with them. I would lose connection with family whom I only get to see every few years since they live in Guatemala which is by far impossible to speak with all the time as I do on facebook. Although i may lose connects I do feel as if I'd gain some new sort of knowledge by separating myself from any type of social networking. I would maybe gain a sense of nature and a better exercise habit which doesn't include sitting on a chair or laying in bed while searching through facebook. All in all, there may be loses and new wins, but all one has to do is find a balance between the two.

Facebook Suicide

My first thought after reading this article was that the title actually has a double meaning. Facebook "suicide", as the author states, is when one exits this realm of social networking, cutting oneself off from the virtually constructed community that links so many people together. However, Facebook itself could also be considered a suicidal device inflicting our "real" lives. Personally, I can relate with the anxiety that the author mentions, brewing over the course of a day, wondering if I've made any new friends, received any notifications, or thought of a perfect status update. Even Facebook terminology has infiltrated our modern lexicon, with terms like "friending" denoting the acceptance of a new contact, or "posted", referring to this action of making something public and shared between all on a common page.
I have never seriously considered deleting my facebook to commit "facebook suicide", largely based on the fear of becoming disconnected with that social world, or losing all of my "friends" and pictures. Checking facebook has become as normal as checking emails, but I can visit my page without doing or changing anything. I hope that like previous social networking sites, facebook will become less and less a part of my daily life as I grow up; however, knowing that it isn't a site geared towards only college students anymore blurs those lines a bit.

Week 5 - Blog 8 facebook suicide

I first find an interesting similarity to the Southpark Facebook episode that discussed how Stan tries to delete his Facebook account and isn't allowed to because of how connected it was. That being said, I do see the author's reasoning on how facebook is a form of narcissism. However, in most things we do, there can and often are narcissistic motivations. But those actions also are based off of other people (for example you dress a certain way or take that picture to make yourself look good for your friends) so I think its very difficult to separate the two motivators.

Personally, I would never delete my Facebook page, or any of my social networking pages, but not for the reasons the author says people keep them. I work in marketing, and thusly I need to be where the trend is, analyzing it every step of the way. What I stand to lose by deleting my accounts is a good connection with pop culture (and then my career choice). I also heartily believe in the value of Facebook for maintaining connections that would be difficult or impossible to do otherwise. Whether or not its a superficial connection, the connection can have value for you or for them, so why destroy the connections?

And while it may be somewhat narcissistic make an effort to present the best image of yourself you can online, what's wrong with that? It's your opportunity to market yourself to acquaintances, friends, employers, etc, so why waste the opportunity? I don't see it as something that you slave over and end up losing track of 'real life', I see it as something to enrich your life, both as a self-marketing tool and a community building tool.