Occupy Movement and Social Networking
Universidade de Lisboa
Faculdade de Letras
2011/12
2º Semestre
Indústrias da Cultura EUA
Prof. Mark Yakich
Universidade de Lisboa
Faculdade de Letras
2011/12
2º Semestre
Indústrias da Cultura EUA
Prof. Mark Yakich
Question 2
No sentence can define social networking better than “The real spectacle that draws us here is us”. I will focus on Facebook because it is the social network that, in my opinion, discloses more this concept of putting a show of ourselves to everyone else.
If we go to the Facebook site and use all of the tools available we can easily understand that is a spectacle of “Me, me and me”. We can see it immediately in the status bar (“What are you doing”, “Upload a photo of you and your friends”); then on the publications of the friends (it’s often seen people writing “Give me a like” or “Share my status so that everyone knows that I have done this or that” and then for example just the creation of our account and how our profile is shown, we can almost tell our whole life without writing a book. In our profile, we can show everything and the worst is that some people do. We can write if we are single or not and how many jobs we’ve had and where, we can show almost of our likes in life, from music to cinema, literature and more!
It is insane and it depends on the person and what choices he or she makes but the truth is that most of the people have a Facebook account to show their lives and moments almost in a way of having the so ambitioned 5 minutes of fame, it reminds me of the donkey on Shrek movie (“Me, me, me! Pick me, Pick me!”). It’s almost Broadway musical because we have videos and photos and music, all about that person, and they don’t mind at all, in fact they are happy to show it and to see that finally someone is really paying attention to what they do or write! It’s a self-Promoting network just like a political campaign, without the promises and with all the scandals. I have to say that although we have this side
Faculdade de Letras
2011/12
2º Semestre
Indústrias da Cultura EUA
Prof. Mark Yakich
Universidade de Lisboa
Faculdade de Letras
2011/12
2º Semestre
Indústrias da Cultura EUA
Prof. Mark Yakich
Question 2
No sentence can define social networking better than “The real spectacle that draws us here is us”. I will focus on Facebook because it is the social network that, in my opinion, discloses more this concept of putting a show of ourselves to everyone else.
If we go to the Facebook site and use all of the tools available we can easily understand that is a spectacle of “Me, me and me”. We can see it immediately in the status bar (“What are you doing”, “Upload a photo of you and your friends”); then on the publications of the friends (it’s often seen people writing “Give me a like” or “Share my status so that everyone knows that I have done this or that” and then for example just the creation of our account and how our profile is shown, we can almost tell our whole life without writing a book. In our profile, we can show everything and the worst is that some people do. We can write if we are single or not and how many jobs we’ve had and where, we can show almost of our likes in life, from music to cinema, literature and more!
It is insane and it depends on the person and what choices he or she makes but the truth is that most of the people have a Facebook account to show their lives and moments almost in a way of having the so ambitioned 5 minutes of fame, it reminds me of the donkey on Shrek movie (“Me, me, me! Pick me, Pick me!”). It’s almost Broadway musical because we have videos and photos and music, all about that person, and they don’t mind at all, in fact they are happy to show it and to see that finally someone is really paying attention to what they do or write! It’s a self-Promoting network just like a political campaign, without the promises and with all the scandals. I have to say that although we have this side