Instagram: Placing Power in Social Media

Instagram: Placing Power in Social Media

Image 1: Instagram windows (Aurameir, 2016)

Whether it be our online Facebook friends demonstrating the concept or an employer who may have access to our social life, power seems to be present or be found in any social network ‘space’. As Kuttainen (2016) suggested “Power is everywhere, it is both diffuse and embodied in what we learn, what we can and cannot say, and what is legitimated as real or the truth”  Over the last few weeks we have become aware of how power is exerted through different social networks and platforms.

The virtual network I have decided to deconstruct for my assessment across the next several weeks is Instagram.  Instagram at first would seem like a photo/video log. However, once you have familiarized yourself with it, you start to see how power is being used in such a place and how one may see it as dominating if they choose to experience it.  As Allen explains: “Power, as I understand it, is a relational effect of social interaction” (Allen, 2003, p.2)  If you were to deconstruct Instagram you will often see that people’s Instagram content vary depending who is on their followers list, which shows that power has been put into this ‘place’ because we have allowed it to enter this space so we must learn to act to self-survey and monitor our actions similar to the idea of the Panopticon.

Sherry Turtle’s (1995) discussion of Bentham’s panopticon explains that the system used in prisons allowed prisoners to commit to rules so that no consequences would be given by the guard with power, similar to if we were aware that our every move was being watched by an employer. Tim Rayner’s understanding of this system at Philosophyforchange.com provides a strong view regarding how posting in social media is similar to ‘playing to a crowd’. Instagram is becoming more of a bigger platform for social media advocates using the site to influence followers and also enable to bring them down. In the next few weeks, I will be watching Instagram and continue to watch how power is being used in this network.

References

Allen, J. (2003). Lost geographies of power. Malden, MA: Blackwell

Instagram windows. In Aurameir. Retrieved August 10, 2016 from http://www.aurameir.com/instagram-for-business/

Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, lecture 2: Power. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Rayner, T. (2012, June 21). Foucault and social media: life in a virtual panopticon. Philosophy for a change. Retrieved from https://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-and-social-media-life-in-a-virtual-panopticon/

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster