As the internet has become a medium for self-documentation, we ( as prosumers ) experience a sense of urgency in its forms of public exchange. As a result digital media serves as more than a vehicle for exchanging information, as it has become a vehicle for identity-formation.
Our public and private selves have become indecipherable ; identity has moved from a state of embodiment to a measurable status so that for many people, the self is no longer just a form of representation, it is a performance.
the panopticon •
functions to make prisoners take responsibility for regulating their behaviour.
its major effect is to induce the inmate with a state of conscious and permanent visibility
To craft a tweet or frame a post with a wry observation, we step back from our experience and transform it into a story, with ourselves as the lead character.
‘curriculum of culture’
turns popular culture into a socio-political act and becomes a way to shape your identity — a way to position oneself in relation to others by acquiring and displaying cultural products that fit with our beliefs.
Our output is now creatively determined by the user, yet commanded by the presence of an expectant and ever present crowd.
‘cultural transmission’ ; the passing of cultural ideas and entertainment from one to another. What we consume helps construct us. And as long as we keep communicating through our consumption, we aren’t in any danger of eroding our memories and ourselves.
The algorithmic gaze interferes with this process of subjectivation ; which is the process of self-construction carried out through an individual's participation in their world.
As each social media service tends to facilitate a different kind of subjectivation, we tend to shapeshift our beliefs, according to the crowd we serve.