Symbolic
interactionism (Blumer, 1969: 2) can be used to explore how individuals act and
evaluate meanings, how meaning is generated through social interaction and how
meaning is interpreted according to encounters. In 1968, Andy Warhol predicted
that “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” In the age
of reality television and video-sharing websites, it could be argued that has
been achieved. Anything, or anyone, has the potential to become a viral
phenomenon, and ordinary people can become celebrities overnight. The rise of
communications media has overcome barriers and ‘made the boundaries of all
social spaces more permeable’ (Meyrowitz, 1994: 67). Through social networks
individuals identify with each other and communicate on mass, sharing
information and experiences. These connections extend social interaction
rituals, allowing celebrities and public figures to become more accessible,
thus creating an ‘illusion of intimacy’ (Horton and Wohl, 2004: 375). The
ability to connect and interact with anyone online has provided more freedom,
but this virtual ‘self’ influences both online and real-life ‘performances’. We
act differently; more confident and aggressive online which seems to compensate
for the restrains we might feel in real life. As these ‘personas’ become more
and more connected and entangled, there’s potential for it to become less easy
to separate them. The derivative of Andy Warhol’s prediction could be that in
the future, everyone will eventually become obscure for fifteen minutes.
In
order to understand how advances in communications media influence social
interaction, it is necessary to analyse ‘the dynamic relations between
producers, texts, technologies and interpretive audiences’ (Laughey, 2007: 78).
Technology is changing the world; telecommunications have progressed from the early
use of visual signals and audio messages to email, social networks and video-sharing
services. The capacity and demand to exchange information in ‘real-time’,
across significant distances is growing at an exponential rate. Real-time is
when individuals respond to actions as they’re published, the exact time an action
becomes visible being equal to the time it takes to ‘select, check, suspend,
regroup and transform the meaning’ (Blumer, 1969: 5). The huge volume of this information
produced means that there’s more emphasis on relevance, validity and first
impressions. Erving Goffman’s self-presentation thesis can be used to explore the
techniques deployed by individuals and groups to perform an expression of
themselves to others. Goffman’s theories are mostly concerned with face-to-face
encounters, but they can be applied to mediated forms of interaction. His model
for understanding social interaction is the theatrical stage with individuals
performing roles. The word person, in its first meaning, is a mask (Park, 1950:
249). The mask being a metaphor that everyone is basically playing a role; and
it’s in these roles that we know each other and ourselves. At one extreme Pinocchio (1940), attempts to present
himself in a light that is favourable to him when confronted about school
attendance. He projects the claim that he’s telling the truth, but the
impression he gives off doesn’t
convince those present. If you feign the truth then your nose will grow. At the
other extreme, we find the performance in The
Invention of Lying (2009) to be cynical, deluding others for
‘self-interest’ but the expression is believed as an absolute truth and the
‘audience’ don’t question the validity of the performance. These are extreme
examples, but indicate that obtaining fact lies beyond the time and place, such
factors as the knowledge possessed about the individual need to be considered.
Society is organised on the principle
that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral
right to expect that others will value and treat him [/her] in an appropriate
way. Connected with this principle is a second, namely that an individual who
implicitly or explicitly signifies that he has certain social characteristics
ought in fact to be what he claims he is (Goffman, 1959: 24).
Web-based
social networks have made it possible for individuals to maintain social
connections, share interests, activities and control expressions of themselves online through self-presentation
techniques. William Shakespeare’s phrase “All the world’s a stage”, could have
been referring to today’s Internet driven era. Facebook has become the largest
theatrical stage, where individuals perform to their social connections,
providing updates, sharing music, photos and videos. Goffman divides these
‘stage-managed regions’ of self-representation into two parts: ’front’ and
‘back’. On Facebook, individuals attempt to accurately represent themselves, the
‘front’ region through pictures, status updates and shared personal information.
Consciously omitting flaws and presenting themselves how they would like to be
received. The ‘back’ region emerges through tagged photos and regrettable actions
that might create an unfavourable opinion. Facebook provides extensive privacy controls
to protect individuals and options are available to remove any unwanted items
from the timeline. Positioned as the essential form of interaction for our
generation, the LA Times reported
recently that ‘Facebook had passed 800 million users’, if the social network
was a country, it would be the third largest in the world. Stretching across
continents and bringing people together, new media technologies have no
boundaries. Individuals from different backgrounds are able to interact with
each other in real-time and inhabit the same social spaces.
People are no longer defined by
physical boundaries or places (where we are) but rather networks of information
and knowledge (what we know) – facilitated by new media technologies that have
no sense of place (Laughey, 2007: 85).
Joshua
Meyrowitz (1985) draws on Goffman’s notion of front and backstage behaviour,
analysing electronic media and ‘how media can affect social situations and the
social networks with which individuals identify.’ These media environments
enable participants to share knowledge, regardless of literacy skills and
develop interpersonal relationships. These are maintained without ever meeting
in person, with information exchanged without a face-to-face encounter, which
includes facial movements, gestures, and tone of voice. Increasingly television
and electronic media, especially social networks and video-sharing services
like YouTube, have led to public figures becoming more accessible and backstage
behaviour being witnessed by millions. Kanye West has been involved in several
high profile controversies. The Washington Post reported on the benefit
concert for Hurricane Katrina, where he criticised George W. Bush claiming that
he didn’t “care about black people.” The visual text is more significant than
the opinion because those involved appear uncomfortable, displaying
uncharacteristic behaviour. There have also been several incidents at music
award ceremonies, where the rappers public performances have led to widespread
criticism. Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross, Andy Gray and Jeremy Clarkson are
other notable celebrities that have caused outrage in recent years. Politicians
have also been exposed to high profile controversies, George W. Bush had a
gaffe-prone leadership and Gordon Brown was caught on microphone describing a voter
as a "bigoted woman". Britney Spears being the most controversial, with
her breakdown being played out through the media. Meyrowitz suggests that a new
type of behaviour has evolved, referring to this as ‘middle-region,’ which
forces media personalities to be more accountable for their actions. Video-sharing
websites though provide an alternative, creating Internet celebrities that are
ordinary people whose backstage region can gain them widespread recognition. These
ordinary people come from different backgrounds, achieve Internet fame and receive
significant publicity. Social interaction around these video-sharing services
produces interesting results, providing amateurs the means to gain exposure,
respond to popular issues and reach an audience. YouTube comments have
admittedly established a bad reputation for the value that they contribute to
the videos, but essentially the only reading should be achieved through the
visual text.
YouTube has become the go-to website
for finding topical and obscure streaming video clips, but everyday experiences
also indicate how fleeting such access can be. Viewers and academics have
quickly come to treat the site as an informal archive of television texts
(Hilderbrand, 2007: 48).
John
B. Thompson argues that media ‘help to maintain and renew our sense of identity,
tradition and belonging’. YouTube rather than displacing corporate media, the
video-sharing service recirculates footage, childhood memories and nostalgia.
Another example is the challenges that face traditional print media, as advertising
revenue and online distribution have changed how media is being consumed. The
main threat will be its ability to understand, implement and embrace new
interactive tools. The web still has ‘pages’, renewing existing news reading
practices, and online distribution has the potential to reach further, provide
more revenue and protect the environment. Thompson refers to ‘everyday
encounters with media, especially television,’ as ‘mediated quasi-interactions’,
which has the effect of bringing global events and issues close to home.
Thompson was concerned with the process of interaction between media producers
and audiences, and ‘the degree of reciprocity and interpersonal specificity’
(Thompson, 1995a: 84), that is available through other forms of interaction.
The Internet has changed that because instantaneous exchanges, through which
audiences can feed back their opinion, have become the norm. Twitter trending
topics and hashtags are a contemporary example whereby conversation, grouped around
syntax, contributes to interaction between media producers and audiences. The
micro blogging service incorporates many of the concepts considered, bringing
distant actions into everyday interaction with others.
The media are actively involved in
constituting the social world. By making images and information available to
individuals located in distant locales, the media shape and influence the
course of events and, indeed, create events that would not have existed in their
absence (Thompson, 1995: 117).
These
dynamic relationships are complex, Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1990) is mostly concerned
with face-to-face interaction and how information is conveyed through conduct
and appearance. Attempting to recreate a representation of ‘self’ online isn’t
straight forward; Facebook encourages exchanges between friends and reproducing
‘real-life’ relationships. The relationship status is the most significant
because it has become a passive-aggressive way to validate the ‘real-life’
connection and confirm that the person is exclusively involved with their
partner. There’s so much emphasis on this in popular culture that the
relationship is only considered official when displayed on the profile. Goffman
refers to this as ‘hyper-ritualised mediated self-representation’, where media
reproduce, artificially, what we learn about ourselves through face-to-face
interactions (Laughey, 2007: 84). This can expand opportunities, but ‘online
fronts’ can also be used to mislead and misrepresent. These advances are
significant but ‘an alternative to, rather than accentuation of, face-to-face
interaction’. Thus, the self-representation theory then can be interpreted as
being ideological. Meyrowitz’s theory of placelessness, claims that media
technologies make information and knowledge more accessible, they provide the
shared domain but language and signification is presumed rather than asserted. The
absence of technological, educational and social exclusion from Meyrowitz’s
argument could be compared to The Matrix
(1999) where knowledge is uploaded directly into the mind. This concept works
in a simulated reality but fails to represent authenticity. Thompson’s theory
of mediated quasi-interaction does maintain and renew, adapting to the
‘material and cultural conditions’. Audiences contribute to the dissemination
of media messages, but also play an important role in the distribution. Thus an
extension of his theory could be mediated quasi-production.
The
Internet has extended communities, created subcultures and provided companies
with more reach to maintain audiences. These technologies have also exposed the
focus on popularity, numbers and selfishness. Search engines provide the most
popular results, follower counts and comments are layered across web pages and
advertisers create this idealistic way of life. Thus ‘serve as a common
resource for judging the adequacy of self and others’ (Glassner, 1990: 215). Let’s
consider the advantages that communications media offers children, these
include access to educational materials and communication tools, but as well as
expanding opportunities they’re being exposed to situations beyond their years.
The ability to connect and interact with anyone online has provided more
freedom, but technology has led to misrepresentation, increased backlash and
enabled protest groups to become more organised. During the UK riots in 2011, rioters
coordinated through the BlackBerry Messenger system, built into BlackBerry
handsets and free to use (The Guardian,
2011) causing widespread disruption. The
Occupy Movement, which is an international protest movement, have used social
media to raise awareness and bypass authorities. These acts are seen as deviance
and often referred to as ‘criminal activity’. Howard S. Becker considers this
to be a social construction, a ‘consequence of the application by others of
rules and sanctions to an offender’ (Becker, 1991: 9). This could be
interpreted as there being no right or wrong anymore, and that there's only
popular opinion. Becker’s labelling theory provides an insight into the
interaction between mainstream and deviant cultures but, often these groups
find that it’s difficult to be represented correctly when they’re labelled as
villains. The media contribute to maintaining and renewing this objective view,
and this misrepresentation means that groups become disenchanted. Protests are
inevitable, especially when people come together to act collective for a
greater purpose. The Internet provides a greater reach to be heard, although
being relevant is difficult when there are so many opinions competing for attention.
It
appears that the rise of communications media has not only affected social
interaction but shaped society. Real-time conversations across significant
distances are the norm, access to information, education, news and other data
is instantaneous. Technology creates possibilities, providing the ability to
build and maintain virtual relationships. Progress has been made but more
problems have gained visibility and self-representation has taken on added importance.
Goffman’s model for understanding everyday social interactions is the
theatrical stage and through communications media, individuals attempt to
accurately represent themselves and inhabit the same social spaces. People are no longer defined by physical
places, and networks of information have arisen where collectively knowledge is
shared and the meaning is interpreted. Social construction can be used to
stereotype through the mass media, although popular opinion appears to challenge
media institutions. The patterns of social interaction are changing all the
time, perhaps that’s always been the case but more acknowledged through
communications media. What’s certain is that through the Internet we have a
gateway to infinite possibilities.
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