Ideal schmideal

From my experience dealing with avatars or profile pictures, I have learnt to always take them with a grain of salt (or a bucket in some cases). No one is ever going to be able to show you a complete rundown of themselves in the space of a Facebook ‘about me’, and so as E.T. Higgins, author of Self-Discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect, says; people ‘mediate their image, strengthen their virtues’. In doing so, people often present an image of their ideal self rather than their actual self. The following image from theincredible-s’s Tumblr page (2014) shows a humorous representation of Stage 1 of Baudrillard’s Hierarchy of Simulation (1994).

By creating this notion of an ‘ideal self’ it becomes apparent what societal ideals are nowadays. Just by playing Second Life or any other game requiring a custom avatar, you can see how people want to look, and how other people react to them. For example, if I were to create an avatar for an online game (lets just use Second Life as an example), and my avatar had bright green hair and wore a clown costume with fairy wings, no one would believe that was an accurate representation of what I actually look like, so why are we all so caught up on creating a ‘perfect’ looking avatar?

This need to be ‘perfect’, in my opinion, stems from a vast array of influences. One of the main influences on people these days is mainstream media. As seen in the image above (Refinery 29 2013), photos of otherwise beautiful people are ‘photoshopped’ to fit societal ideals. This falls into the second stage of Baudrillard’s Hierarchy of Simulation (1994), which is a misrepresentation of an original, created purely to fuel the need for an ideal world.

In my opinion, when I upload a photo of myself to Facebook or Instagram, I am the only one who actually cares about it. Sure, people may ‘like’ it or comment on it, but no one is sitting there thinking, “I wonder when Mollie is going to upload another photo of herself”. So why are we all trying to please people who really couldn’t care less?

References

Baudrillard, J 1994, Simulacra and Simulation, 2^nd ed. University of Michigan Press, USA.

Higgins, E. T. 1987, ‘Self Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect’ Vol 94, Psychological Review, The American Psychological Association Inc. New York.

Theincredible-s, FB Profile Picture, photo tagged by friends, viewed 27 January 2014, <http://theincredible-s.tumblr.com/tagged/facebook>

‘Jennifer Lawrence Photoshop Fail’, Refinery 29, viewed 27 January 2014, <http://www.refinery29.com/2013/12/59162/jennifer-lawrence-flare-photoshop-fail> 

Courageous or Coward?

In Julian Assange’s interview with 60 Minutes (2013), he is referred to as an activist. Activism is defined as “the doctrine or practice of rigorous action or involvements as a means of achieving political or other goal, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc.” (Dictionary.com 2014) Referring to Assange as an activist may be the most accurate description of him, as the goal of Wikileaks was to inform citizens of government corruption.

Codeinet 2013

Bertot, Jaeger & Grimes (2010) present the idea that social media is a strong tool when it comes to fighting government corruption, by way of four major strengths: collaboration, participation, empowerment and time. Because of the widespread accessibility of social media, it provides users a venue to collaborate with other users from across the world. This collaboration & participation of users leads to empowerment, by allowing them to voice opinions where they will actually be heard. This can be done almost instantly, creating the perfect tool to overcome government corruption. Wikileaks is an example of a collaborative social media tool used to fight government corruption. Users are promised a degree of anonymity as they share their information.

This anonymity did not cover Bradley Manning, however. Manning was convicted of espionage following his leak of government secrets to Wikileaks (ABC News 2013). This conviction has sparked fear in Julian Assange, as he states in his interview with 60 Minutes (2013), as he fears the same fate will come to him.

We have the tools to create government transparency, but will anyone be willing to stand up and fight now?

References

Bertot, J, Jaeger, P & Grimes, J 2010, ‘Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies’, Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 264-271.

Codeinet 2013, Julian Assange Asylum Seeker – 60 Minutes Australia, 4 August 2013, viewed 16 January 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES5Qs5ebgb4>.

Dictionary.com, viewed 6th January 2014, <http://dictionary.com>

‘Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years’ jail for Wikileaks data breach’, ABC News Australia, viewed 14 January 2014, <http://abc.net.au/news/2013-08-21/soldier-bradley-manning-sentenced-to-35-years-jail/4903854>.

Wreck-It Rudd

During the 2013 election, whenever I logged on to Facebook or Instagram, I was bombarded with statuses, photos and memes of everyone’s political opinions. People were absently mindedly contributing to the election campaigns by either agreeing or disagreeing (generally the latter) with the candidates.

Entertainment was a major part of Kevin Rudd’s 2013 election campaign. By adopting words such as ‘selfie’ (self-photo) and ‘quiche’ (from Chris Lilley’s J’Amie Private School Girl), Kevin Rudd’s popularity with young people skyrocketed because he was so entertaining. However, during his election campaign Kevin Rudd posted a new photo on instagram every day, if not twice a day, however since the election, 22 weeks ago, he has only posted twice. He has since closed his twitter account (News.com.au 2013), creating more reason to think his use of social media was not a genuine attempt to connect with a younger audience, but simply a stunt for his election campaigns.

The use of social media in political campaigning fits in with Jenkins’ views of participatory culture as candidates are moving their campaigns to an environment that allows people to participate in them by voicing their opinions. Jessica Stanley, a consultant to Labor’s 2007 campaign, stated: “Social proof is very important. If your friends are seen to like Rudd, it makes it easier for you to like him.” (Swan, J & Visentin, L 2013) This idea of ‘being cool’ for liking a candidate is, in my opinion, exactly what all politicians are aiming for. If a politician can make young people think that voting for them is the ‘cool’ thing to do, then they have won the social media war.

References

Steph Rogers 2013, ‘Tony Abbott NBN Meme’, Our New PM, At Least He Makes Good Memespiration, viewed 12 January 2014, <http://stephrogers.com/2013/09/13/our-new-pm-at-least-he-makes-good-meme-spiration/>

TNT Magazine 2013, ‘Wreck it Rudd’, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard Memes Sweep the Web After Day of Upheaval in Aussie Politics, viewed 11 January 2014, <http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/australia-news/kevin-rudd-and-julia-gillard-memes-sweep-the-web-after-day-of-upheaval-in-aussie-politics>

“Kevin Rudd bids farewell to twitter followers after announcing resignation from parliament”, News.com.au, 14 November 2013, viewed 11 January 2014, <http://www.news.com.au/national/kevin-rudd-bids-farewell-to-twitter-followers-after-announcing-resignation-from-parliament/story-fncynjr2-1226759365975>

Swan, J & Visentin L 2013, "Political heavyweights are online, upfront and in your face", Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2013, viewed 13 January 2014, <www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html>