I understand postmodernism simply as a transformation from the past. I use the word ‘transformation’ rather than ‘change’ because postmodernism literally transforms how society functions, but still maintains aspects of the past. An easy way I thought of this was with inventions. For example, the telephone was invented many decades ago yet we continue to alter its abilities, uses, and appearances today. Each of these reinventions of the telephone are based upon a previous model and it would be impossible for us to see what a telephone might look like one hundred years from now because no one will ever stop reinventing it.
The idea that there is no end to some inventions connects with George Ritzer’s discussion “The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens”. Ritzer argues that “[...] we can be seen as living in a fractal age where things proliferate endlessly and expand like a virus or a cancer. There is no goal other than endless proliferation. The Internet is legendarily viral with all sorts of texts and images, as well as viruses and spam, proliferating endlessly” (Ritzer). The Internet is a huge example when thinking of postmodernism and it can be narrowed down into numerous different categories. One of these categories is social media.
Today, social media sites are ever changing platforms that records users’ identities. In Sherry Turkle’s “Aspect of the Self” she argues that, “The Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterize postmodern life” (Turkle, 180). Many people today have social media profiles and also expect others to have them as well. Oftentimes, when we come across someone who does not use social media our automatic reaction is to ask them, “But...why?”
Social media has quickly become a public record of ourselves - or how we want to appear to others. Many users are concerned with how they appear online, and might try to change how they were to adjust to the changes in social media. For example, social media sites have recently started to include stories on users’ newsfeeds. Someone who has never used this feature before might be intimidated by it, but as their other friends start using it they feel left behind and eventually, figure it out. Not only is the social media site an example of postmodernism by ‘copying’ from another site but altering it make it a new version, but the users’ are an example of postmodernism as well. They might watch their friends stories, understand what is considered appropriate or funny for the new feature, and produce similar material to maintain their online persona.
Works Cited
Turkle, Sherry. "Chapter 7 Aspects of the Self." Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2014. 177-209. Print.
Ritzer, George. The Society. "The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens." Cyborgology. N.p., 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
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