Gordon Social Media

I believe that all goodness comes from God; we cannot be fully credited with any goodness that results from our actions. The idea of framing the self as a product is contradictory, in my opinion, to what God intends for us and what is the reality. The “project of the self” is a much more accurate representation of our selves, where we are constant works in progress. The “project of the self” allows us the opportunity to credit all our successes and goodness to God, whereas the “product of the self” consistently evaluates and compares our selves as a product created entirely by us and meant to fit normative guidelines. I believe that God works in ways contradictory to culture and we are not intended to be reflections of the world we live in. We are human, broken vessels, and we learn to be more like God through our humanity. Jesus prayed to God, and spent many days in self-reflection with the word even though He is divine. I believe that we should mirror His ways: spend less time creating content and more time in constant prayer, devotion and reliance on God so that whatever we do, it may be good.

Banet-Weiser in her article addresses the problem of how teenagers especially teen girls are shaping their identities through social medias like Youtube. They try to do so through their performances on Youtube.  Those teenage girls that Banet-Weiser mentioned uses social medias as a way to shape up what other people think of them, they see themselves as a product to promote. They use social media to “brand” themselves just like how marketers would do to promote a product.

It is a common problem that we have discussed in this course of “performing online”. In my opinion, the problem is caused by how social media is used nowadays. As social media becomes more commonly used in our lives, many people from our generation tempt to judge someone by looking at one’s profile on his/her social media accounts. This put users of different social media platforms in a spot which tempts them to “perform” themselves as the one that people would like to see or want to see in order to gain popularity.

Product of self vs. Project of self. To me a “product of self” is in other words saying self-discovered or self-made. Which can sound a little ungrateful at times because of the influences we have in life from others, but in this case would be a positive thing. Especially because nowadays everyone is obsessed with everyone else in social media the feeling of individuality is gone. So instead of being themselves and ignored by the mass amounts of people they are trying to be “better” or more interesting in any way possible. Now “product of self” is a bad thing because it calls no attention which on social media it means they has no value, instead everyone has a “project of self”. A “project of self” means to have a goal or an ideal image of yourself to strive for. In other words “who do i want to be?” Because of the ability to create a different online identity people are now trying to be the most interesting and have the most value online. For some reason it is now valued to have a sense of being fake or “more interesting” than to be yourself. I feel the people who choose to be a product of self don't participate online as frequently because their value doesn't come from the amount of likes or shares but they have a self-value.

Banet-Weirseer seems to be arguing that the Internet and social media have allowed individuals to develop their own identities online. While there can be benefits to shaping identities online this article focuses primarily on the cons especially when it comes to girls. The article advocates that this “living online” has cost us to view our lives as a “production” for the enjoyment of our audience, which are those we can reach.  While there is definitely some merit to what the article has to say, I feel as if some of the conclusions are a little exaggerated.  

Banet-Weirseer suggests that we are not longer simply using YouTube and other social media sites as a way to broadcast ourselves, but we are using it to broadcast our brand. To me, I see our brand as being detached from ourselves. Our brand becomes what we project outwardly towards the large audience of social media consumers and we create our brand by the user feedback we get. “Ourselves” is then what we keep from the social media consumers, or what the consumers don’t like. Based off of this, it is almost as if social media, specifically YouTube, is no longer a place for people, or in the articles case, girls to truly speak their minds and act the way they want to act. The girls in those videos are not creating themselves, but are creating what the consumers want from them. 

The transition to “product of the self” ends up canceling out what social media was designed to do. It has always been said that social media was a place for its users to have a voice and be whoever they want to be. Now, however, our image and our brand has become so important to us that we no longer project ourselves, but we create our selves into a product and try selling it for likes and views. Instead of using YouTube and other forms of social media as a way to break the system, we have become part of the system and will continue to play a role in it because we have been conditioned to do whatever we can to be accepted and liked. 

The argument that Banet-Weiseer is making is very relevant for the transitions and use of technology that society is going through today. A term that stuck out to me in this article was  “living online”.  This term is very true for many people of my generation as well as for the generations to come. It is becoming more and more “mainstream” to spend most of one's day online creating a certain image for oneself. 

The term “living online” relates directly to “product of the self”. To me this means, that some people often take better care of what their image is online rather than developing relationships, and themselves in the real world, or in each moment. This frightens me quit a bit and I often catch myself worrying about miniscule things such as how many “likes” I am going to get on an Instagram post or what a certain image will look if I post it.

The argument that  “project of the self” is now “product of the self” suggests to me that society is becoming more focused on one generalization that is seen as “cool” rather than working on oneself to put forth the best version of that individual.  Social media invites many people to conform to what society thinks as acceptable and normal, whereas the pressure to fit in was not as evident before social media.

“Product of the self” suggests that social media encourages users to change their views and personal image along with society, to create a better “product” even if it means defying what that individual stands for.  

In this era of neoliberalsim, Banet-Weiseer argues there has been a transition from “project of the self” to “product of the self.”  What does this mean to you?

The way I approach social media, the same way I look at any man-made thing, is that there will always be pros and cons worthy of keeping in mind.  Social media is a great tool for certain reasons, yet it can be quite easy to get caught up in it all.  Banet Weiser introduces the concept of the “project of the self,” stating that we purposefully are creating a public showcase of who we are to the online world.  This idea of transitioning from the “project” to the “product of the self” refers to the fact that people are very strategic in the way that they present themselves, trying to promote/sell themselves.  The unfortunate thing with this is that it can be detrimental to the human psyche; the thought that we choose certain pictures or pieces of writing to post primarily to gain validation is one of the main reasons why I have been turned off by social media.  Like I said before, I do think there are some positives to social media; however, it is something that should be tread carefully.

Banet-Weiseer discusses how the self has become something that we have to market, using popular culture and what appeals to people. It means that we have essentially gone from individuality and uniqueness to creating a product that is sellable and appealing to what others expect and look for in their given culture. For some people, this might bring them a lot of attention and fame (think of all the celebrities who have come out of producing themselves on Youtube), but for others, it might be restrictive to who they actually are. Banet-Weiseer notes that creating a marketable self on YouTube means conforming to certain societal/cultural norms and expectations, and this may disproportionally favor certain groups of people and leave out other groups and minorities. Thus, transitioning from the project of the self to a product of the self is not always a good or beneficial thing. 

With the freedom to post comes the freedom to respond. Unfortunately, physical separation affects the delicacy of comments. Sure, posting “ourselves” can be empowering. But trying to fit ourselves into the formula that garners the most likes inevitably puts us in a box. The irony is, in a world where representing “SELF” is paramount, the “self” we perform is the one that masses want to see. The project of the self is only validated by observers outside of ourselves. Success is not intrinsic, it’s extrinsic, which seems oxymoronic when the project is essentially intrinsic in nature.  

I looked at the account for GoPro. This account is very well branded, having an emphasis on the excitement of daily life and the people who use GoPro cameras. Everything from extreme sports to nature photos, from hiking to dog walking, this account exhibits what the product can do by showcasing the work of its customers. Photo of the day competitions ensure that Instagram users stay active, perpetuating the images that make it to the account.

Additionally, I looked at the account for NASA. These images are almost always beautiful shots of the night sky, galaxies, or other astronomy related images. NASA opts for long captions that aim to educate the viewer on the significance of the picture. This account is less “browsing” centered, and aims for more in depth interaction with the viewer.