My undergraduate degree is in criminology and you can bet we spent many hours in that program discussing different theories and studies of surveillance. So when the subject of surveillance in social media came up I was definitely interested. The discussion though has had the side effect of making me feel surveilled in my online activity. I feel watched by friends, colleagues, my professor, future employers, future students, and maybe even the government!
It started with Anders Albrechtslund and his article Online Social Networking As Participatory Surveillance. Albrechtslung suggests classical theories of surveillance, like Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and the theories of Michel Foucault, fail to cover the widespread participation in social media. He supports an expansion of current surveillance theories to incorporate a more horizontal structure instead of top down. For support, he illustrates how through social media people voluntarily open themselves up to public scrutiny. Even just the information you have to enter to create an online profile for facebook or twitter impressive. Then once you have that account, you participate in sharing details of you life to the world, without really thinking about it.
This is the crutch of the matter. We do it without really thinking about it. When we share something on facebook we don’t think about the world reading it, we see it as sharing it with our friends. I knew, but didn’t really think about, all the ways in which the things I post online could be used. My words can be taken out of context and used in ways I never intended, my birthday party photos used against me at a job interview, my profiles scanned for criminal tendencies. Sure I knew these things were a possibility but not until recently have I really though about it and now I am feeling it’s full effect.
One of the benefits of online interactions, including social media, is the freedom to express yourself,converse and connect with others, share. I like sharing. But now I feel watched and the freedom is gone. I want to share my thoughts and feelings but fear how they will be taken out of context and used against me and I won’t have the chance to defend myself. I might not even know it’s happening. And that was the function of the panopticon: each prisoner was isolated and arranged so each individual at any given moment could be observed from the guard post but the prisoner never knew when he was being observed and so acted as if he were being observed at all times. In the social media panopticon the person in the guard post could be anyone and they can observe not only your current behaviour but all your past behaviour as well. And you don’t know when they’re watching.
So now, living in a new place away from the people I like to share things with, I hesitate to reach out and share like I did before. The effect will fade, I’m sure, but it doesn’t mean the surveillance in social media fades with it. I guess it’s like coming to terms with the millions of cameras on city street corners.
4 replies on “The Social Media Panopticon or I’m feeling watched and alone.”
This post is precisely the direction I hope you take with your blogging. It reflects your synthesis of the module’s readings and your own understanding of concepts. Well done. I hope you feel enough trust in the class and in me to enjoy yourself and to make the distinction between 24/7 surveillance and my reading your blog and listening to what you have to say in the discussion areas. I realize that implies some judgment but this is also the reality of the professional world. We are always being evaluated — by peers, other colleagues in the profession and our supervisors.
You have much to give and my intention is to encourage you to give it to us.
Cheers, Dean
I think the panopticon is a great visual for understanding why some people are reluctant or even out right refuse to engage socially online. Logically, you have to wonder how employers would find the time to look up the social network profiles when, in my experience, 90% don’t even contact the references you give them. But all it takes is just the suggestion that someone with influence might see a compromising photograph and suddenly paranoria starts setting in.
What’s also remarkable though is despite this idea of constant surveillance people are willing to put just about anything online regardless of the potential consequences. I remember reading about the experiment with the imprisoned students at Stanford (http://www.prisonexp.org/). As I understand it, the people in this study quickly forgot they were in what was supposed to be pretend environment. Reality tv shows seem to show similar traits in that people seem to very quickly adapt to the fact they are constantly on camera. Is this because of the type of people that are chosen to participate? Or is the way human’s interact so engrained that people cannot help but “be themselves” socially no matter who’s watching? Is this a counter example to Bentham’s idea?
Just recently, someone told me that people don’t really care so you should just live as you want to live. I guess that is not true if your online activity is going to be watched closely but I also think for the average person on the street (unless you are thinking of becoming a politician or some celebrity), their daily activity is not going to be watched that closely and really, if people wanted to dig up dirt, they probably can and then you have to ask yourself – if my potential employer does something like this even before I am employed, is this where I want to work? There is a high chance that surveillance will be even worse as an employee.
Your post also reminds me of theories of ideology. Ideology is at its strongest at the level of the family and personal sphere hence the panopticon is effective precisely because it operates at the level of self. Self imposed surveillance is far more effective and a lot more restrictive than one imposed externally but the panopticon is also an illusion.
I really appreciate this post and I think that your really captured the severity and seriousness of “participatory surveillance.” It is kind of scary when you really start to consider what others could potentially do with one’s information. Reminds me of the online buzz over an application that was developed called FireSheep, http://www.instantfundas.com/2010/10/firefox-addon-firesheep-lets-you-hack.html. Basically someone had developed an application that allowed users to hack other peoples Twitter or Facebook accounts in order to prove how unsafe the tech is. Also, there are quite a few add-ons and downloadable applications to enhance security and privacy while online: http://ginva.com/2011/01/30-best-firefox-security-and-privacy-addons-for-safe-browsing/. Although these aren’t fool proof (personal information is still out there on the interwebs) it’s a step in the direction of being safer on the web. This is also a great article for best practices to de-personalize your personal information web experiences: http://www.thefilterbubble.com/10-things-you-can-do.