The influence of the celebrity in our society is unparallelled, especially given the effect that they have upon children. We live in an information society which is fuelled by image and branding, enhanced by a celebrity culture that is plastered across advertising, magazines and TV. This celebrity culture has evolved due to the online activity of users, as they're lives become more accessible and 'instantaneous' thanks to a social networking site such as Twitter. With the evolution of this celebrity culture, it has also shifted the 'market of personalities' into a digital and more robust form (Marshall, 2010). We have become eager to emulate our favourite star, manipulating our online image so as to run parallels with their lifestyles.
Social Networking and 'blogging' are the central nodes to this creation of online persona's, due to their simplicity. Users can post what they want to post, be it image or text, in a way to present their desired image or status across a site like Facebook. It has allowed for the creation of aliases or alternate persona's which users deem desirable, in a way that emulate's a certain lifestyle or personality. Marshall (2010) has labelled this as a 'Specular Economy', where we are more conscious about the way we present ourselves. Using the example of a two-way mirror, he highlights how social networking and online activity has allowed us to reflect a certain persona that may not be true reflection of the self. It is an interesting concept, especially as we become more reliant on social networking platforms.
Reference List
Marshall, PP 2010, 'The Specular Economy', Society, 47, 6, pp. 498-502, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 September 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment