Facebook Is The New Panopticon
A Links entry from Wednesday, August 8, 2007Facebook Is The New Panopticon
Foucault Blog:
Counterpunch argues that the Facebook phenomenon is pretty much Bentham’s panopticon made real:
Facebook has ushered in a revolution, and a failed one at that. It is much like the panopticon – ‘all-seeing’, that surveillance device the English utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham pioneered in the nineteenth century for penal reform.
…Personally I don’t buy it. Sure there are surveillant qualities but it is largely voluntary.
Diane, while I’m tempted to agree with Jeremy, I think he is wrong on that last point. At least on college campuses, there is a tremendous amount of social pressure to join the website, to “be a part” of the online community, that it is really more of a forced choice. That is why people who are not on it are considered to be either Neo-Luddites or social outcasts.
tina oiticica harris
It’s a shame Bob Dylan would be portrayed in such vile manner. He is the best poet in Anglophonia. He’s a survivor. I take my hat, well, one of them, to his genius and pry thee —WHT is this director?
[]***
Bryan Klausmeyer
bryklaus@umich.edu
One Comment