R5

Foucault views social media as a virtual Panopticon; a central "guard" with "prisoners" all around being constantly watched. The thing with social media is, at all times, we are both the guard and the prisoner; watching others, and being watched ourselves. On social media, everything that we share becomes a part of our identity. "We can and do use social media as a vehicle for creative self-development." If someone shares a political article, it will be assumed that they agree with whatever the view of the article is unless stated otherwise, even if the person is simply sharing the article because it poses an interesting viewpoint. According to Foucault, subjectivation is the ability to shape ones on identity and generate social development on your own terms. I feel as though in social media, this relates heavily to the idea of sharing and posting, as mentioned above.

When thinking about subjectivation in regards to myself, there are many things that I am willing to share on social media, as well as many that I am not. It depends a lot on the platform that I am on at the time. On Facebook, I am friends with lots of family members and high school teachers. Here, I try to stay away from political topics, and stick to posting about simple things, like puppies, food, or memes. To be honest, I think I'm a very funny person online. One post that I would share on my Facebook page (that I actually recently did) is this video that I found. It's not an essay or an article, but I usually don't like to post full articles on Facebook. If I had to post an article on Facebook, however, I would probably post something satirical from the onion. I am in Greek life on campus and I enjoy making fun of myself for that, as does my entire family. The article linked is about pros and cons of greek life, but they're actually all sarcastic and basically label everything as a con. I thought it was funny to read, and figured my family would get a kick out of it as well. 

As for articles that I wouldn't normally share, political posts on Facebook are something that I try to avoid. I went to the Women's March this January, and when I simply posted pictures about it on my timeline, I received a great amount of comments on the photos from friends and family shaming me for going. I had a few articles that I wanted to share, but chose not to due to the initial reaction that I got from the photos; I didn't want my notifications blowing up. One article I wanted to post, though, was this article, which talked about how successful the women's march was and how much bigger it was than anyone expected. This article is part of my identity though, because I consider myself a feminist. 

I am also very into Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is a show that was pretty popular in school when I was younger, but as an adult who is starting to try and look for a job, I would feel weird posting about it. This article, however, is a very interesting one about how Avatar is one of the most subversive shows of 2014. I found it incredibly interesting, but no one on my timeline would feel the same, so I don't post it. 

Cited
“Foucault and Social Media: Life in a Virtual Panopticon (pt.1), I Tweet, Therefore I Become (pt. 2), and The Call of the Crowd (pt. 3),” Philosophy for Change, 6/21/12, 7/4/12, 7/26/12, http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-and-socialmedia-life-in-a-virtual-panopticon/