J.Lo's new video

Jennifer Lopez-I'm Into You

This came out two weeks ago. She looks INCREDIBLE for being a forty-something year old mother of twins. Ahhhh. Why does this 19 year old without any children look so much worse?! Summer means time to work out!

Mango Season

Mangoes are still plenty in Kerala. My grandmother skins a few mangoes everyday and the entire family feasts . I eat a mango a day, sometimes twice a day :) These mangoes cannot be compared to the ones available in American grocery stores. Indian mangoes are an explosion of sweetness and you just can't stop eatinggggg. So very delicious :)

India

There are a lot things I love and hate about India. It's a strange relationship that requires constant re-evaluation in order to maintain the delicate balance between good and bad.

Things I HATE about India: 

The mega creepers who stare at you in the streets, pollution, nasty humidity that makes you feel like you're drowning in your own sweat, and lack of freedom (at least for girls).

Things I LOVE about the motherland:

FOOD FOOD FOOD! 

Seeing family after sooo long. I miss them.

And just BEING there. It's a nice change from sterile America.  Yeah the streets are dirty etc. but the people there are SO different. I definitely encounter very interesting people in the streets. It's enlightening to talk to people from radically different backgrounds.

I'll be there on Saturday! I'll miss you DFW <3

Finals

Almost done with my sophomore year! One more final to go and I'll be freeee.

Life advice from William James

"Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this, as all who have experience know: if we wish to conquer emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance, cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions we prefer to cultivate. Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial compliment, and your heart must be frigid indeed if it does not gradually thaw."

Good info to keep in mind when you're down :)

$100,000 leggings

So Beyonce wore these Balenciaga gold-plated $100,000 leggings for her BET performance in 2007.
I don't know why MSN's WonderWall decided to feature this news in their current weekly news wrap-up. I guess it went under-reported at the time? As much as I love Beyonce, this is pretty outrageous.

Dead Stars

This is how a star dies; death is suddenly wonderful

Hafez

Here is one of my favorite verses by Hafez, one of the ultimate masters of Sufi poetry.


"Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger,
Only to someone who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you."

How can you not love this?

Facebook’s Impact on Communication

Facebook has revolutionized communication in a radical and irreversible way.  We are more interconnected to each other as a race now than at any other time in human history. Anyone with an internet connection and a Facebook profile can instantly share pictures, videos, and posts with their friends, family and peers.  It has permanently altered humans’ relations to the internet as well as with each other through the creation of a feasible online presence, instant communication and engaging stimulation.

The internet has turned into the foremost method of communication for an overwhelming majority of the world’s population. Facebook using the internet as its primary platform has important implications. Firstly, it enables instant exchange of information and events, many times almost as soon as they occur. The uprisings and dissent in the Middle East can be used as a primary example for this claim. Protestors in many of the Middle Easter countries affected such as Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain used social media such as Facebook and Twitter to document every phase of the revolution. Facebook was also used by protest groups to garner support, distribute information and inform its members of various developments. The “live” aspect of Facebook is a primary magnet for attracting users in the first place. The Newsfeed feature attempts to capture events as they happen and allow users a kind of special privy or access to events.

The creation of the internet arose from humans’ needs for better communication. The advent of social media tools such as Facebook has made us accustomed to gaining information in this instantaneous fashion; it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to revert to previous modes of information sharing such as mailing letters. Facebook has permanently altered our expectations for gaining information with regards to content and speed. We demand various types of media such as photos, videos, and blog posts as well as live, immediate postings of them. This is in sharp contrast to thirty years ago when primary communication between humans was letters, telephone calls and face-to-face interaction. We have gradually replaced the more immediate forms of communication such as direct interaction with a secondary representation of ourselves such as a Facebook profile.

One of the most important aspects of a Facebook profile is the profile picture.  It can be treated as an identification marker that declares to your online community your appearance and all the attributes that come along with it. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. People’s choice of photos they post for the world to see can be very telling of their personalities. Facebook allows direct manipulation of the way others perceive a person.  Having a continuous online presence in others’ social networks has drastically altered the way we relate to one another. People can be very deliberate in the creation of their profiles and what they post etc. in order to convey and promote a certain sense of self to others. This component of interpersonal relations was always present in other forms of communication, such as e-mail, mailing letters and even face-to-face interactions, where the color of one’s dress can influence the second party. However, Facebook allows multi-modal avenues for manipulation of others’ perceptions. A user is being judged based on his pictures, status updates, number of friends, links posted etc. Having so many avenues for judgment creates a severe self-awareness and deliberateness to one’s actions and what one chooses to reveal about oneself.

Our modes of communication have obviously been drastically altered by technological advances. The telephone which seemed simple enough--hear the sound of another person via cables and respond—has evolved into a multi-billion worldwide industry incorporating a myriad of features that could have never been imagined decades ago. It is still used primarily as a communication tool but has also accommodated various other functions such as GPS, language translators, and most importantly the internet. Having the internet in the palm of one’s hand drastically alters human actions and ways of life. Research has shown that the internet is playing increasingly more predominant roles in decision making. People choose to spend most of their waking hours online or using some sort of communication device. Wireless internet drastically altered human communication because it offered more ways for people to stay connected. The addition of Facebook exponentially increased people’s chances of staying in touch at an almost perpetual level. Now people can take pictures of objects and occurrences in their daily lives and share them immediately. This allows more access to people’s lives as well as a heightened level of self-disclosure that was previously unheard of. It has become normal to disclose one’s innermost thoughts and occurrences in one’s daily life to a large, semi-public audience.

Facebook has lived up to its claims of connecting people. After all, we are instantly connected to our peers after we add them as friends and are privy to information that would have previously been locked away unless teased out through many conversations. Displaying one’s information in a resume-like format such as Facebook instantly informs others of your life in a way that was previously unheard of. Chat rooms could have allowed users to communicate this information to others through conversations but Facebook doesn’t even require a conversation in order to reveal this information. We are walking billboards in the world of Facebook.  Acquaintances may recognize us not based on meaningful conversations shared but from our profile picture or a funny comment on Facebook. The ways people relate to each other are changing. We have more access to each other’s’ information while ironically being more isolated from society.

“Pictures or it didn’t happen” can accurately sum up the Facebook generation’s view on social events. Facebook itself is a continuous social event, a live “party” of sorts as it involves many people and various multimodal interactions. It has become ubiquitous to witness other people’s social interactions on Facebook. This is a special privilege in a sense as social events are usually constricted to a certain social class or group. Therefore in a way, Facebook is overcoming social barriers by allowing “outcasts” to partake in the social experience of certain groups. This might not have been the intent of the creators of Facebook but it is an effect that can be observed nonetheless. A similar effect can be observed in the viewing of a user’s “Wall”. The Wall is a presentation of a user’s interactions between him and his friends. Public display of one’s conversations allows access of normally private information to a larger audience. Even if Person C is not friends with Person B, they can still see their interactions with common friend Person A. We have become so accustomed to this type of public and common sharing of information that did not exist decades ago. Our sense of individual privacy has definitely lessened as we are less wary of other people knowing our personal information. This can be contrasted to the 1990s when internet usage started increasing; people trusted each other significantly less then than they do now. Now it is normal to share one’s birthdate, favorite movies etc. with acquaintances or people one has only met once. It is possible that Facebook is creating lowered inhibitions with regards to self-disclosure.

References

Beaumont, Peter. "The Truth about Twitter, Facebook and the Uprisings in the Arab World | World News | The Guardian." Latest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian | Guardian.co.uk. 25 Feb. 2011. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya>.

Federman, Mark. "What Is the Meaning of The Medium Is the Message?" UTORweb. McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm>.

"McLuhan's Laws of Media." Horton High School. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://www.horton.ednet.ns.ca/staff/scottbennett/media/>.

Rainie, Lee. "The New Media Ecology and How It Will Affect Work and Learning | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project." Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 7 June 2006. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2006/The-New-Media-Ecology-and-how-it-will-Affect-Work-and-Learning.aspx>.

Strate, Lance. "A Media Ecology Review." Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture. Communication Research Trends, 2004. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://cscc.scu.edu/trends/v23/v23_2.pdf>.

Facebook and its relations to artificial identity construction

Facebook presents itself as a platform for self-expression and networking for its users. The site’s various options are meant to offer users empowerment and control over various aspects of their social lives. Users can choose whom to friend, what information is available to which people, the types of interaction between friends, and the type of information they disclose about themselves, all with the aim of creating an optimal networking experience. Upon further examination using Kenneth Burke’s perspective by incongruity, Facebook can be revealed as to not actually replicating real world social relations or enhancing friendships in the virtual setting but merely propagating shallow friendships and inducing excessive self-promotion. Creating and maintaining a Facebook profile has turned into an elaborative scheme for many users as they meticulously upload attractive photos or compose witty statuses to gain “likes” and comments. Facebook has evolved from a Social Networking Site originally branded as bringing together people into an outlet for unleashing egotistical tendencies and inflating the user’s sense of self. It is certainly personalizing the social experience but also increasing the “I” component in a relationship.

Different modes of communication involve different social norms and laws. Face-to-face interactions include both verbal and non-verbal components that require the participants in the social group or dyad to adjust their behavior accordingly. Suggestive glances, firm handshakes, faltering eye contact etc. all have different implications in the context in which they are used and can completely contradict the participant’s verbal message if these gestures are used in juxtaposition. This form of multi-dimensional communication defines “real world” interaction, where both parties are physically present in the same immediate environment. Online interaction lacks this enrichment of communication but users of Social Networking Sites are not despairing. There is actually reason to celebrate as some critics argue that social networking websites such as Facebook enhance social interaction with the availability of an array of features and its capacity to instantaneously reach a large audience. Sharing digital media such as photos and links to videos or restaurant deals etc. attempt to fill the non-intimate void created by the absence of non-verbal communication in an online social exchange.

Another form of “enrichment” available on Facebook is the creation of the user’s online identity. Identity construction is an interesting phenomenon as the initial attraction of Social Networking Sites was the option to create your personal page and then connect with other peers. How thrilling to instantly access information about your acquaintances, relatives and co-workers that would have previously only been available after many encounters and building a real relationship. Now users can bypass the entire phase of building intimacy and close relations while still gaining access to an individual’s life. Users also have the option of presenting their “best” self to their Facebook community; one’s profile picture can be very telling of an individual. Some users’ profile pictures mainly depict glamorous self-portraits while other users may choose to amass pictures of themselves in social settings, surrounded by large groups of friends to highlight their sociability and popularity. In general, users are concerned with impressing their online friends and profile pictures provide the best outlet to do so. Research findings show that people with low self-esteem post attractive pictures of themselves to boost their sense of self-worth while people with high self-esteem post pictures to preserve their “beautiful” status. (Estoisia, Renée, Neema Pithia, Claudia Rodriguez, Teresa Yu, and T. Boellstorff)
The availability of a plethora of pictures provides Facebook users a sense of intimacy with the profile or subject they are viewing. However, the information gained from passing judgment on a profile picture can in no way substitute the knowledge gained from talking to a person. Individuals can only leave traces of their true selves in a digital platform. Simply being privy to an old acquaintance’s vacation photos does not actually translate into a meaningful relationship between the user and the profile being viewed. In reality, individuals use the instant, gratuitous medium of Facebook as a substitute for creating real world relationships that would require substantial more work than browsing through profiles. This is not in any way opposing Facebook’s declaration as a tool that helps users “connect and share” with the people in their lives—users are certainly connecting and sharing. Rather, an evaluation of the meaning of meaningful relationships must be conducted.
Updating one’s Facebook status is a quintessential tool for identity construction on Facebook. A status is directly representative of the user’s consciousness at a certain time and offers ample opportunities for judgment from his Facebook community. Just as with profile pictures, statuses can also be used to aid self-promotion. Statuses can range from musings about mundane daily activities to proclamations about the outstanding quality of life led by the author. In many ways, statuses are more important than profile pictures in constructing identity as they are directly expressing user’s ideologies and consciousness. The Newsfeed is the heart of Facebook and is freshly supplied with new statuses at any given time, lending exceptional importance to the quality of the status posted. The number of “likes” and comments a status receives drives its rank in the Newsfeed, thereby furthering its popularity among the Facebook community.

These short blurbs of life, philosophy, ideology, wit etc. are effective in relaying effectively and concisely what a user is feeling at a given moment. Checking one’s Newsfeed every morning does a wonderful job in being constantly updated about one’s peers’ activities and whereabouts. The need for this constant inundation of peers’ lives must be questioned. Of course, users care about their friends’ activities and there is a natural human tendency to share information with their loved ones. However, most of the time the Newsfeed serves to fulfill the Peeping Tom ‘s desire to participate in exclusive activities that did not involve him in any way. In this way, “facebooking” can be likened to peeping through a kitchen window. The user is constantly reminded of others’ activities that he was excluded from. Additionally, he is forced to update his own status to stay relevant in the Facebook community.

An issue that must be addressed in status sharing is self-disclosure and privacy. Facebook in essence is sharing. However, the extent of what is being shared and to what type of audience is usually disregarded or not given serious thought by the user. “Facebook stalking” has become a standard phrase in vernacular among college students. It is not unusual for groups of friends to research or stalk an attractive male from class. Glancing through his status updates can provide the “stalkers” an instant snapshot of his personality, activities and personal interests—depending on how much he chose to disclose. In general, users of Facebook are aware that they are being watched, stalked, researched etc. and take special care to generate statuses that are in accordance with the image that they want others to perceive them as. If someone is trying to be popular, he might update status’ regarding social activities and tag many people in them to establish his desire to be viewed as “cool” and highly social. Therefore, posting statuses is not merely an act of sharing but yet another tool that Facebook provides to manipulate personal identity in the virtual world.

Many parallels can be drawn from status sharing to posting on friends’ walls in the world of Facebook. However, an additional utility to Walls is that users can witness entire conversations unfold between peers of a certain social group. The choice to make a conversation public is telling of the users; private conversations can be kept intimate via messaging. Choosing to post on a friend’s wall signifies that the user does not mind the rest of his friends seeing this certain post. This is in accordance to Facebook’s philosophy of sharing and connecting with others and feeds users’ methods of identity construction. Users are letting their friends know the content and nature of their communication as well as the agent and target of their discourse via Facebook Walls.

In the passive, voyeuristic world of Facebook, users are defined by every trace of expression they leave. It is easy to judge the superficial self constructed by a user’s Facebook activity but it might not be reflective of a person’s true personality. The information a user discloses on his profile informs the Facebook community of what he wants them to know, not his authentic, whole self. This can be likened to wearing a t-shirt with a certain band or singer imprinted on it; he is sharing a certain aspect of his personality. Profiles offer an outlet for self-expression but can also be a venue for brutal distilling of the user’s self into an abstract image. The user sets out to establish a certain Facebook image via the selection of a specific profile picture and posting statuses in conjunction to that image. It is impossible to expect a complete or authentic interaction on a social networking site as individuals are only offering an abstracted version of themselves. Individuals choose to only offer information that they think is vital in others’ perception of their identity. (Wollam, Ashley J) Facebook can be argued to be a venue for an interaction that is artificially induced and thoughtfully manipulated stemming from individuals that painstakingly created profiles to impress their peers. Of course this is a harsh perspective and not completely true. Users are given a choice to represent themselves in a way that is simply not available in the real world. However, offering only faint traces of an individual does not promote meaningful relationships. Facebook profiles only offer a fraction of a person’s real identity and essence; technology can never be a substitute for the prototype or human.

Through severe abstraction of one’s identity on Facebook, authentic interaction is sacrificed. There are certainly plenty of advantages with using Social Networking Sites but it can never replace face-to-face interactions. In addition to manipulating identity construction, they also promote excessive focus on the self. Instead of communication occurring between a set of individuals, it is represented as having been exclusively initiated by the user via wall posts etc. Dialogues have turned into exclusive galleries of users and their lives. Instead of empowering users, Facebook is creating a generation of excessively self-conscious users that participate in ever increasing shallow social relations.

References:
Zhao, Shanyang, Sherri Grasmuck, and Jason Martin. "Identity Construction on Facebook: Digital
Empowerment in Anchored Relationships." ScienceDirect.com. 17 Mar. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
Estoisia, Renée, Neema Pithia, Claudia Rodriguez, Teresa Yu, and T. Boellstorff. "Identity
Construction and Self-Representation on Facebook." Culture, Power, Cyberspace. 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://anthrocyber.blogspot.com/2009/05/identity-construction-and-self.html>.
Wollam, Ashley J. "Facebook - Encouraging (in)(a)Uthentic Identity Construction." Scribd. 21 Apr. 2008.
Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/9713634/Facebook-Encouraging-inaUthentic-Identity-Construction>.

Ghost in the Shell

                The Ghost in the Shell addresses quite a few questions about the nature of humanity and construction of identity.  What does it really mean to be human in an age where technology enables us to create so many fantastic and bizarre beings?  The movie challenges the notion of separate spheres of human and cyborg and the long held basis for creating one’s identity.

The protagonist, Kusanagi, is unsure of her constitution as a cyborg and questions her existence outside of her robot body.  The “ghost” refers to consciousness and is the essence of an individual. The ghost cannot exist separately from the body and once destroyed, it is incapable of restoration.  This is similar to death in real life; we cannot bring back the dead.  The movie depicts a surreal diving sequence where Kusanagi plunges into the water, an extremely risky act as her cyborg body is not designed to spend time in water.  She is seen to merge with a mirror image until she emerges through the other side and onto the surface of the water.  This mirror image can be seen to reflect the two conflicting sides of Kusanagi—her cyborg side and human side—and her struggle to create meaning of them.  Perhaps she is destined to be inseparable from them as she is shown to blend with the mirror image and go through it. 

However, it is clear that she longs for some closure and might even prefer humanity to the life of a cold, empty cyborg.  She states that the only time she ever feels alive is when she dives.  That is the only time when she feels “fear, cold, loneliness, and even hope.”  These very “human” feelings can be directly attributed to her throwing herself into a dangerous situation, i.e. diving, in order to feel something real and vulnerable.  Getting close to death is the only time she can really feel anything close to being human.  The movie implies that one of the main differences between humans and cyborgs is the capacity to feel beyond which is programmed and logical.  Although death is guaranteed for both humans and cyborgs, perhaps the former is more acutely aware of its destiny and has feelings that anticipate it. 

There are many conversations where Kusanagi and Batou debate the nature of existence.  She questions her inherent value and feels completely bewildered about her true nature.  The film’s drawn out shots, close ups and eerie soundtrack all lend to create an unsettling and atmospheric environment.  The viewer is forced to see the lingering, slow images of the characters’ expressions, thereby getting a strong dose of their emotions without the aid of too much dialogue.  There are also many shots of the city, done in a deliberately slow pace, creating a sense of being lost in the world that is infinitely bigger than its inhabitants.

A defining scene in the film occurs when Project 2501 explains his unique position as a cyborg that has its own free will. He is independent and not under control by a human.  He questions the authority of the humans when he states that “neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is.”  What power does the human have over the cyborg when neither party can explain its origins?  Project 2501 presents an interesting dilemma in that it is a blend of both human and technological worlds. It also exhibits the dire consequences of over computerization of the world, in which humans detract power from themselves by creating ever more powerful technological inventions.

 It is implied that free will is the sole defining factor of being human.  However, the film does little to reassure this fact as Project 2501 is a completely self-aware cyborg.  Many existential questions involving the marriage of humans and technology are posed.  Although this is not probable in real life, there is much parallel to reality as humanity has become irreversibly dependent on technology. The film forces the audience to question its relationship with technology and the very nature of being human.

Detournment article

 Facebook is watching you

            The initial success of the Internet was partly based on the marvelous anonymity it provided for its users.  Creating an anonymous identity turned into an art, resulting in many clever nicknames and avatars.  Complete anonymity empowered users; they could completely re-create themselves online and essentially start a new life, leaving all the complications, limitations and insecurities of reality behind.  The internet didn't aim to emulate real life social relationships and patterns, rather it was meant to be a fantastical place where users could be completely free and uninhibited.

            So what changed?  People wanted more personalization and self expression.  People wanted to share their identities, interests and ideas with others in an authentic way. Anonymity had its benefits but human narcissistic desire could not be quenched by creating a fake sensational online identity, pretending to be a hot 22 year old Brazilian in a chat room.  The online realm was polluted by scammers and hackers and communicating with other faceless individuals could sometimes feel meaningless and impersonal.  The internet was missing truth, reality.  And that is precisely what Facebook planned to deliver to its 500 million users—the transcription of social relationships from the real world to the virtual world.  Facebook provided a very adaptable platform to connect to other people.  Communication was no longer restricted to e-mail messages and posting on forums.  Users could browse through profiles of fellow peers, witness new friendships being formed and see guest lists for events they're planning to attend.  Humans are social animals, gossip mongers and peeping toms and Facebook has capitalized on all of them. 

            Almost everyone has a Facebook account.  It has become the norm to end a conversation with “add me on facebook” instead of getting a new acquaintance's phone number.  It has dissolved social boundaries and privacy that would exist in real life.  The Facebook generation has become accustomed to knowing everything about everyone.  It's inappropriate to stare into your neighbor's window but that's precisely what we're doing.  We have turned into spectators of the worst kind—voyeurs who constantly yearn to be stimulated from yet another person commenting on their status or profile picture.  We are thrilled from seeing new notifications and feel a kind of sedated pleasure from looking through pictures of people we've never met. The Facebook newsfeed is the equivalent of the town shrew always on the look out for fresh gossip or a neighborhood watch program.  We live in constant mutual surveillance and incessant judgment.  It is possible to know the most vital, basic statistics about a person after a single encounter.  Information that would have taken several interactions to discover are now readily available for the world to see.  We have been replaced by our profiles.  Social relations are essentially run through a catalog where individuals can look up people according to school, location, interests etc.  Is it really necessary to know so much about people one hardly talks to? 

            Facebook has successfully perpetuated human consciousness.  It owns everything a user uploads on its site and makes it impossible to delete one's account unless one does it manually.  In essence, Facebook owns its users.  500 million members feed this 50 billion dollar company.  Facebook has become a ubiquitous presence in our society that has become the platform to serve a very important human need, communication.  Now that the institution has been firmly cemented in our minds, it is impossible to turn back.  We are feeding this corporation that has millions and millions of user data and  trillions of bytes of information.  We have sold our souls to Facebook., becoming slaves to a system that has yet to be tested on its levels of trust and honesty.  We have willingly handed ourselves on a  platter to a plethora of advertisers, waiting to be attacked and bombarded with advertisements specifically catered with uncanny precision to our demographic and interests.

            The most impressive part of the whole debacle is that its users probably didn't even think twice before sharing their entire lives on the internet.  Most people assume it's harmless.  What's the big deal in sharing one's favorite movies, music, hobbies, education and work place?  It is precisely the meat that corporations and agencies want in marketing among other uses.  Facebook is fairly new and we have yet to realize its holistic effects on society.  The Facebook corporation has an extremely large responsibility in managing users' privacy and keeping their data secure.  When one posts a status or wall post, little thought is given to what happens afterward.  Sure, someone likes your status and makes a funny comment.  But imagine 500 million users all uploading information, every day for years?  The amount of data that Facebook owns is incomprehensible and lends tremendous power to the organization. 

            My detournement project seeks to demonstrate how Facebook can be likened to a “Big Brother” of sorts.  We have readily offered information and implicitly agreed to be monitored both by the corporation as well as our peers or Facebook friends.  I imposed the Facebook logo over the image's original “Big Brother” text to read “Facebook is watching you.” It should invoke a sense that Facebook is omnipresent and extremely powerful; one's every move is being monitored and recorded.  Facebook has complete power over its users, despite its assertions that content is controlled by its users and not its programmers.  They ultimately are the owners of the information uploaded, not the people themselves.  We hand ourselves over to the corporation along with our profile pictures, status updates and friend records.  A website has access to valuable information about not only our profiles but our habits of use and activity patterns.  These are rich data that could be analyzed to reveal significant things about Facebook users.  It is unknown what the website can do with this information and its intentions. 

            Symbolically, Facebook can be likened to God, enveloping us and having a significant amount of power over us.  The website has evolved into this massive, wildly successful beyond belief organization that has tremendously affected the way humans relate to one another.  We have projected ourselves online, driven by an incessant need to continuously reinforce our self indulgence via updates.  Perhaps we should be wary of how much of ourselves we put online.  The detournement project could possibly be seen as a warning then, a reminder that the internet provides a false sense of security and we shouldn't let our guard down.  A website has unwillingly caused so many secrets to spill in the very public domain of the internet. 

            The concept of Big Brother can also be compared to the constant surveillance that Facebook enables.  Users log in to watch and review each other, which can essentially be reduced to spying.  Facebook has provided a free, extremely easy platform for people to keep track of each others' every thought, every party they attend and every new person that they meet.  Vital statistics are shared carelessly in the absence of any meaningful exchange.  It seems appalling but our generation has evolved into one that doesn't concern itself too much with self disclosure; the more open you are the better.  This generation prides itself in keeping records.

            First we must recognize the spectacle.  According to Debord, "all that was once directly lived has become mere representation.”  This could not be truer in the case of Facebook, as it is the exemplary prototype of everything that Debord was against.  Users do not view Facebook as a Big Brother figure, rather they see it as a tool to express themselves and connect with friends.  Facebook represents itself as the foremost platform to network with others on the internet.  It's homepage states that it helps you “connect and share with the people in your life.”  It has a new check-in feature which lets users proclaim where they've been and with whom.  There are a multitude ways users can let the whole world know of their activities.  Likening Facebook to Big Brother negates its value as a helpful tool and instead morphs it into an imposing and formidable villain.  It maintains an ever vigilant supervision of its unsuspecting members. 

            Upon closer inspection, we realize that we have handed over a lot of power to the spectacle.  We are content with living through representation.  Technology has been promoted to help society but in actuality, society has become its slave, scrambling to consume and inundate itself with illusory representation.  Facebook users feel very empowered as they are equipped and enabled with a myriad features to “connect” with people.  This has propagated a cycle of illusion where the more time one spends on Facebook, the more isolated one becomes from reality, reinforcing the spectacle.  In this way, users have handed themselves over to a corporation and likened themselves to zoo animals, letting spectators come and ogle at them via the means of a profile. 

            By using Debord's methods of first identifying the spectacle and then devaluating it, I have produced my Detournement project.  I established that the spectacle like qualities of Facebook, announcing it to be virtual reality, isolating its users and rendering them helpless to detach themselves from the phenomenon.  Detournement requires the means and end to be one and the same, therefore using the very fundamental premise of Facebook as a tool or conducive social agent, it had to be negated within itself, using its own innate qualities.  It produces false dichotomy when it pretends to promote singularity among the user and peers. 

            Debord would have been abhorred by society's dependence on Facebook today.  He would have urged us to inspect it and devaluate it into its simplest form, thereby exposing its vanity and changing its meaning.  Individuals have been numbed although they falsely believe themselves to be empowered. Relationships can be dissected into images, groups and comments, innately lacking deep meaning or significance to its owners.  We are increasingly becoming superficial and dependent on this type of representation.  The spectacle is winning for now but perhaps in the future, users will realize the profound consequences of their overindulging self-disclosure and stop feeding Big Brother.

           

             

           

Artifact Selection: Facebook

          “Oh hey, I've seen you on Facebook!”  I've had this thought flash across my mind when I meet a lot of new people nowadays. Except I try not to voice it aloud when I meet them lest they think I'm a stalker.  I may have never met you but I have seen photos of your honeymoon in Mexico, significant other or new baby.  Complete strangers, this is subject to one's privacy settings, now have access to important milestones of a person's life that would normally would have been shared with only the closest of friends.  Or at least people you've actually had a conversation with.

            Facebook has only been around for 7 years but it has completely revolutionized how we connect to others.  Remember the old days when friendship meant listening to the Spice Girls and sharing a sundae? (Okay, that's what I did in middle school but your activities may differ.)  You would actually  make time to see your friends because that was the best way to communicate. Of course, telephones and e-mail existed but it never had the power to perpetuate social relationships like Facebook has.   Friendship can now be condensed into wall posts, comments and playing Farmville late into the night.  You  may have over a 1000 friends but actually talk to only a handful on a daily basis. Being someone's “friend” has come to mean a completely new thing now.

            Other people would argue that Facebook has merely become yet another way to share information with your social circle.  It can actually strengthen relationships due to the fastness and ease it adds to communication.  It makes keeping in touch with old friends as easy as posting a smiley face on their walls, albeit how superficial it may seem.  There are no more excuses to NOT keep in touch with people, unless you live in an isolated mountainside in Nepal abandoned by the internet.  Many people may not have time for 20 minute conversations on the phone. Facebook allows easy yet powerful ways to reach people.  The number of people you have access to has exploded; meeting someone new is not subject to chance encounters at the bookstore anymore.  Facebook has dissolved communication barriers that are normally present in face to face interactions. Too shy to call that cute girl you met at a party? Just shoot her a wall post and start a casual conversation.  Facebook allows you to be as anonymous or public as you want. This is a strange form of empowerment in a way and is one of the reasons why people are addicted. We are allowed options that are just not available in real life. 

            Facebook can be considered as one of the most powerful drugs of the last decade.  Some people (aka I) cannot go to bed unless they have checked their Facebook one last time. I think of potential statuses while waiting in line.  New profile pictures can involve an hour long photo shoot and editing.  It has perpetuated human consciousness in an unprecedented and radical way.  It will be fascinating to examine why a lot of people are addicted to the site. The influence of virtual communication on real life interaction can also be studied. Hate it or love, Facebook is here to stay.

Goodbye bin laden

I was shocked to hear the news that the U.S. had finally killed Osama bin Laden. It's about time. It's strange to think that this larger than life figure is finally DEAD. One can only wonder what his last thoughts were or what he said to his captors. I wonder what was going on in the minds of the CIA agents as well. Perhaps they'll come out with a book on the subject, like "I Killed Osama." 

This is very exciting. Of course he's a human being and it is slightly disturbing that we are applauding the death of a fellow human. But considering the magnitude of his evil, our celebratory attitude is justified. It will be interesting to see how al-Qaeda reacts and deals with this major blow.

Obama was careful to highlight the fact that it was HE that was responsible for initiating action against bin Laden. This is definitely good news for the President. He will forever be known as the first black president of the U.S. that also helped catch one of the most dangerous men in recent history. Good job Obama.