Our perpetual quest for approval, meaning and above all, individuality has been given a new name in a new age of media. The ‘symbolic project’ as Thompson so eloquently calls it, is a constantly fluxing representation of ourselves. One which is able to be tweaked, edited and added to incessantly. And through social networks, we have limitless content to construct this being out of and numerous stages on which to present it to the world.
Rosen spoke of fine art that was commissioned to depict the sitters worth and status through oils and costly frames. Centuries later, this principal of self preservation and documentation is still in practice, but depicted by pixels and the number of followers one has. It is the idea of acquaintances, or ‘mediated quasi-interaction’ as Huberman would say, overblown to grotesque proportions.
I know I am not immune. Half the artists, bands, public figures and cultures I am passionate about have been the rewarding gems of late night virtual trawling. But I believe holding a critical eye glass up to the site/profile/person before accepting it as truth and urge others to do the same. As today, marketers and companies are forced to blur the line between advertising, entertainment and information in an age when at a click of a mouse, their efforts can be forgotten.
References
Rosen, C. (2007). Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. The New Atlantis, Number 17, Summer 2007: 15-31.
Huberman, B.A., Romero D. M. and Wu, F. (2009) Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope. First Monday , Volume 14, Number 1.
Thompson, J. B. (1995). 'The Self as a Symbolic Project' in The Media & Modernity: a Social Theory of the Media. Cambridge: Polity: 209-219.
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