R4: IISuperwomanII Thrives on Postmodernism

                                                                  Postmodernism in Modern Day
         My understanding of what postmodernism is that it highlights change and innovation in the sense that nothing is set in stone; the established past authority is something to question and challenge with new notions. Therefore, postmodernism is valuable to examine social media because there are constantly new products or ways of approaching a problem that challenges the already established way of dealing with it.

  Sherry Turkle author of Life on the Screen, builds off the notion of postmodernism as a way of redefining “identity”.  Turkle states “. . .we are learning to see ourselves as plugged-in technobodies, we are describing our politics and economic life in a language that is resonant with a particular form of machine intelligence (Turkle 177). Society is changing the meaning of identity, because of machine intelligence one is able to use the internet. Turkle states “On [the Internet], people are able to build a self by cycling through many selves” (178). Machine intelligence gave rise to the internet, which is a postmodernism gold mine, as the opportunity for sharing and creating new meanings that challenge the past established rules and ideologies with others is easier than ever before. George Ritzer, American sociologist and professor, makes the claim in his speech “The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens” that “the goal of the internet is to simply keep the conversation going” (Ritzer). As a result, we a produsers are augmenting reality by producing artifacts on the internet through new communications channels found on the internet which ultimately affects one’s identity- in real life and online. Ritzer claims that we are augmenting reality and that we are trying to transcribe what we see in real life to the life we live online, through simulation. “One of the orders of simulation is images and reflections of reality and another is that simulation masks a perverts reality” (Ritzer). As a result, we as a society desire to build connections that extend beyond the face to face interaction, but what we recreate online sometimes masks our true selves. Consequently, since we are plugged in technobodies ascribing to machine intelligence, we are driven to build more connections or retain more information. Therefore, one has to be technologically savvy to differentiate between what is real and what is fake online; because, quite honestly it is hard to tell these days!

  In terms of postmodernism, we want to be open and transparent and share with others by creating new meanings. The one way people tend to do that is through new identities or avatars online. For example, I would argue that social media benefits from a postmodern framework along with those who use it. It is much simpler today to challenge the notion of identity. It used to be something that was set in stone and hard to alter. But with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it is easy to have multiple accounts. For example, someone can change their lives by creating an alter ego or new identity for themselves. Lilly Singh, also known to many by her YouTube username IISuperwomanII, has risen to fame through her funny online videos. Because of the postmodernism ideology, one is able to see how identity has changed for her. 

IISuperwomanII

Most people just call her Superwoman without really calling her by her real name. She’s basically Hannah Montanna, in the sense that she is two people, the real Lily Singh and social media sensation IISuperwomanII. Most of her social media accounts feature her alter ego name, rather than her legal name. Her alter ego, IISuperwomanII is able to reach more people as it is intended as a humorous extension of her everyday life and is easily alterable. It is easily alterable, because of the dissociation people make between the two people. As IISuperwomanII, she is can create new identities to use that are extensions of herself and what she was influenced by. She will dress up as her mother and father in her videos and “record” the stereotypical Indian parental reactions to American life.

Singh dressed up as "Manjeet Singh"

She plays on the struggles that most children of foreign parents face and issues that she as a woman in the Indian community will face. She has expanded throughout the years and as a result, she has created a brand for herself that is sold across all of her social media channels and extends to the “real Twitter accounts of her real parents” Paramjeet Singh , her

Singh dressed up as "Paramjeet Singh"

mother, Manjeet Singh, her father. Because of postmodernism’s idea of challenging the set notion or idea, Singh like many others were able to rise to fame and create new identities that have become profitable by opening the door for more opportunities as she has been able to collaborate with many superstars.

Here are some of her most recent collaborations with world famous celebrities:

Singh with Priyanka Chopra

Singh with the Rock

Works Cited:

Turkle, Sherry, “Aspects of the Self” Chapter 7. Life on the Screen, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1997.

Ritzer, George. "The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens." Cyborgology. The Society Pages, 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. <https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/11/19/the-internet-through-a-postmodern-lens/>.