The Web of Pretence

 

The Web of Pretence

People can get carried away when it comes to social media. With Instagram being a popular platform, users are constantly competing to be deserving of other people’s time and attention. This behaviour often leads to Instagramers forging or faking content. Young adults on Instagram often use this platform to express who they are or rather who they wish the world to perceive them as. An advocate for presenting the un-photoshopped, real version of yourself on social media is Celeste Barber. Celeste is an Australian comedian who is popular for her comparison photos. She provides a comedic view on the realistic account of ‘perfect’ images to show people that not everything is as it seems. Check out this link to an interview she did with The Today Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QNhJ3f1pAA.

Although Celeste grants a humorous spin on the artificial aspect to Instagram, she also provides an example of how people conform to the pretence of social media. These appearances can often relate to expressing the most presentable version of yourself. Judith Butler’s idealisms on ‘performativity’ provide an interesting perspective on the way individuals use social media.

Note. Source: Patyane, O. (November, 2016).

Social theorist Judith Butler termed the way people present oneself to another as performativity (Wheedon, 2004, p. 6-7). Butler gives the perspective that performativity is not equivalent to being fake (Henry, 2020). People on Instagram are particularly susceptible to the idea that they can create a heightened account of their daily life. In doing so, Instagramers may be compromising their true selves. Peer pressure can be a major aspect of the pretence of social media. The idea of people being able to look at and access your account at any time can be daunting. It is what often leads people to behave in a way that might be acceptable to people they admire. This structure is best explained by Bentham’s Panopticon.

An article by Mathiesen (1997) discusses Michel Foucault's study of the panopticon stating that the normalisation of panopticism subconsciously produces subjectivity. This idealism coincides with submitting to peer pressure and wanting to be more popular or have more followers than other users. Because Instagram is a frequently visual platform, it causes people to compete visually and aesthetically. Body image issues are often a strong focus on social media as society constantly tells women they need to be a certain weight or height to be beautiful. Women of Instagram usually oblige to this structure, only posting photos that they deem worthy for their followers to view. Keeping in mind exceptions such as Celeste Barber, the constant pressure to perform on social media can be destructive. Users are endlessly competing for a higher social status even though being ‘Instagram famous’ does not mean anything to some people.

To conclude, the theorisations Foucault, and Butler provide insight into the many structures behind social media and show how society is constantly evolving. The web of pretence is a complex dynamic and ever-changing. Perhaps in the coming future, people will be able to bend and break the social structure to their will.

References:

Henry, R. (2020). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narrative and the Making of Place; week 4 lecture slides [PDF] LearnJCU. https://learn.jcu.edu.au/

Mathiesen, T. (1997). The Viewer Society: Michel Foucault’s `Panopticon’ Revisited. Theoretical Criminology, 1(2), 215–234.

Patyane, O. (November, 2016). Instagram [Online image]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/access-blur-close-up-colorful-238480/ 

Wheedon, C. (2004). Culture and Identity: Narratives of Difference and Belonging. ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com