Facebook: Research in relation to CW1

Facebook

Facebook is an online social networking service which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. In 2012 Facebook had received its one billionth user and is now perceived as the biggest social networking site to date. Facebook plays a major role in the expansion of social media across the 21st century. Interaction with other people across the world has now been made easier by the development of social media. People no longer need physical interaction to socialize but the connection of internet in their homes to become connected with the rest of society. In the above video 'Look Up' 2014 is a short film made by Gary Turk about our online generation. The film represents a world we live in that always finds ways for us to contact one another which results us spending more time alone. It documents the impact social networking sites can have such as Facebook in creating an online persona. This online persona is creating a society that forms the simulation of ourselves. We are no longer submitting our real personas but a creation of who we are, we as a society no longer exist as a physical body but as a circulation of data. Best (2010 p10) comments

'Surveillance in the control society is said to be powered by simulation rather than representation. On the surface, what appears to be happening is the circulation of data representing existing customers and citizens, transformed into quantifiable and manageable form. However, as multiple agents amass information, a control society thesis suggests that what is actually occurring is the creation of selves, or 'dividuals' which are themselves simulations of the original. A dividual is a physically embodied human subject that is endlessly divisible and reducible to data representations via the modern technologies of control, like computer based systems. It is a simulation of itself, in that it is constantly modulating or responding to differing expectations for productivity, consumption and political conduct.' Best (2010 p10)

Facebook is endlessly replicating dividuals on their online social networking site and creating simulations. Perpetual copies are constantly replacing its original personas and creating a controlled society based on displacement. These simulations shrink real social environments and create multiple social platforms that are designed to be in constant competition with each other. Best (2010 p10) comments

'The repercussions people face are based on their profile in the simulation and computer generated projections, not on how they actually behave. The process occurs continuously without need for any contact with or permission from the original. In essence the original self is superfluous to the processes which follow on from the gathering, sorting and sharing of information, processes which distribute impacts and effects based on these multiple simulated data generated selves, without regard to the original referent.' Best (2010 p10)

Facebook discards your original self and creates a persona simulated by data. It controls surveillance through the use of simulation and isolates our real identities. Therefore social media regulates our identities instead of structuring our real lives.

Best, K. (2010) 'Living in the control society: surveillance, users and digital screen technologies', International Journal Of Cultural Studies, 13 (5) p110.