A Flâneur Filters itself in and out of the Instagram Arcade

A Flâneur Filters itself in and out of the Instagram Arcade 

Image 1: A woman on her phone in an arcade.  Souvenir, Nicola Ferrara. Sourced from flickr.com (through creativecommons.com).

Much like the diary has become a digital blog, the Flâneur has received a modern upgrade. Instead of blending into anonymous crowds of 18^th century French arcades, the Flâneur has become modernised in the digital world. 

Metaphorically speaking, the Internet is a virtual arcade, akin to the arcades observed by Walter Benjamin (Prouty, 2009). We, as a collective anonymous mass, have become cyber-flaneurs; passing from window to window, website to website, app to app, forming our own self-identities from observing others and being observed. I know who is watching on my Instagram profile, so I have created my own style. Being watched and watching “can offer an omnipotent voyeurism comparable to the scopic power offered to the guards within the Panopticon prison.” (Barnes, 1997). I have crafted an aesthetic to attract likes from certain followers. When I get those likes, I get a sense of power, because someone saw my 'turtle on a leash' (Prouty, 2009).

The Internet is a labyrinth of networks that is without boundaries, something that appeals to the cyber-flaneur (Barnes, 1997). They are able to blend to the crowd of profiles to observe, but then post their latest life update by saying: “Hey, look at me and my modern day turtle.” Despite having access to an infinite playground, cyber-flaneurs create their own boundaries to have a sense of order in chaos. Barnes notes this, discussing orientation and understanding through spatial cognition and boundaries: “In order to be oriented, one must know how to leave… Such knowledge is ultimately linked to survival and sanity. To be disorientated in space is to be psychotic.’” (Barnes, 1997, p. 1) This disorientation could then affect the creation of self-identity online.

This week’s analysis into flâneurs and cyber-flaneurs was intriguing. To some, this topic was confusing, but to me, it made a world of sense. It explains why people enjoy using Instgram, because it is just a modern day arcade. You watch when you want to, and you are watched when you want to be. That separates the Panopticon from the Flâneur, as the Flâneur chooses when someone watches them. 

By Néa O’Connor, 2016.

References:

Barnes, G. (1997). Passages of the Cyber-Flanuer. [sic] Otago University. Otago, New Zealand. Retrieved from: http://www.raynbird.com/essays/Passage_Flaneur.html  / learnjcu.edu.au

Ferrara, N. (2015). Souvenir | Day 46/365 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasferrara/16546542791/

Prouty, R. (2009). One-Way Street: A Turtle on Leash. Retrieved from http://www.onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html  / learnjcu.edu.au