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| Connect with Facebook (Malkawi, 2013) |
With Facebook you have the power to comment on your sister's status, like your college room-mate's photo and follow your favourite band. Facebook provides you with access to every aspect of these people's lives but have you ever thought about what access you are giving them? Facebook is the largest panopticon prison in the world, you never know when you are being watched or who is watching (Turkle, 1995). Just a general search on Facebook and any user is able to locate your timeline, which grants them access to your personal information. Does sharing every detail of your life with the rest of the world make you more connected or does it just give the rest of the world power over you? Since Mark Zuckerburg's conception of the site users have been abusing the power of Facebook through identity theft, the creation of fake accounts and blackmail. Such misuses have become so common that the documentary series Catfish has been created, which follows people in Facebook relationships as they discover that their partner is a fake (MTV Networks, 2013). You would think Facebook Inc. would address this issue but what power do they have to stop fraud on Facebook when users continue to be so willing to create identity maps for the whole world to see (Wood, Kaiser & Abbramms, 2006).
If interested in further discussion on what Facebook knows about you check out the blog Daylan Does.
References:
Facebook Inc. (2013). About Facebook. Retrieved from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/facebook/info
Maklawi, K. (2013). Gov't should reach out to citizens online - Facebook officia. Retrieved from The Jordan Times: http://jordantimes.com/article/govt-should-reach-out-to-citizens-online----facebook-official
MTV Networks. (2013). Catfish. Retrieved from MTV: http://www.mtv.com.au/shows/catfish/
Pearce, D. (2013,
July 8). What Does Facebook Know About You – An Analysis. Retrieved
from Daylan Does: http://daylandoes.com/facebook-and-your-data/
Turkle, S. (1995). Panopticon, in Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet (pp. 246-149).
Wood, D., Kaiser, W.L., & Abramms, B. (2006). The multiple truths of the mappable world, in Seeing through maps: Many ways to see the world (pp. 1-12). Oxford, UK: New Internationalist.
You have focused on the panopticon prison, of sorts, that is presented by Facebook. However, one might say that individuals engaging in activities allowed by Facebook are not affected by Panopticon in the general sense of the word. In Turkle's article, it is stated that 'A user's experience of the Internet is of a dizzyingly free zone. On it information is easily accessible. One can say anything to anyone." Does this not, in every way, negate the idea of panopticon. Yes, everyone, at all times, can see what you're doing, however, short of reporting it to Facebook, one can do virtually nothing about it. This inability to take direct and immediate action against someone who is doing wrong, has given users a certain anonymity that is not possible outside the virtual world.
ReplyDeleteTurkle, S. (1995). Panopticon, in Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet (pp. 246-149).
Mel, the information you have put together has definitely pointed out what is happening on Facebook. Yes it is true that it is a Panopticon in which there is a feeling of constant surveillance as Buchanan states(Buchanan, 2002).
ReplyDeleteBuchanan, M. (2002). Small worlds & Chapter 1: Strange connections, in Nexus: Small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks (pp. 13-15 & 23-33). New York, NY: W.W. Norton
Facebook is every bit the digital panopticon as defined by Turkle. (Turkle, 1995) in that it keeps people in a false state of representation. That people only post what is presumed to be acceptable or the very best image of themselves.
ReplyDeleteDue to the fact of being constantly under surveillance, and every piece of personal information produced, is recorded and sold to advertisers. Each piece of personal information is analyzed and categorized in giant databases committed to keeping people consuming products.
The biggest hypocrisy of Facebook is that it lures people in with the merit of friendship and connection but is simply a tool too entrap people into continual consumer decadence.
Turkle, S. (1995). Panopticon, in Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet (pp. 246-149).