Cyber Punk, Foucault, and How Social Media Forces us to Confront Identity
In the sci-fi thriller Ghost in the Shell (the 1995
animated movie, not the 2017 live action-remake) there is a confounding scene
of a series of seemingly unrelated images of a futuristic city that does not immediately
add to the plot. Instead of progressing the story, the film takes its time to
contrast different elements of the environment and allow the audience to see older
building and modern technology combine to create a distinct city. Far from
being random, this sequence reinforces the themes at the center of the film,
the way technology changes our perception to identity and its relationship to
the physical (Nerdwirter1).
This idea, that humanity must reevaluate itself with the
advent of a digital world, is present in the entirety of the cyberpunk genre,
which combines the cynicism and dirty urban landscapes of 1940s noir films with
societal distrust of emerging technology and the institutions that abuse them.
Another Japanese film, Akira, shows its characters redefining their
humanity after the introduction of world changing technology (with apocalyptic
results), and American movies such as Blade Runner and The Matrix
explore how the rise of Artificial Technology can reinforce pre-existing
systems of inequality and strip individuals of their humanity.
While these potential futures can certainly be frightening, the
digital revolution does not have to lead to a dismal dystopia. Online spaces such
as social media, despite some clear drawbacks, open possibilities for the
people who use them to construct identities in new and more nuanced ways.
For the longest time, individuals have rooted their sense of
self in their physical bodies and the spaces they take up. After all, physical
spaces define how we can function, where we can go, and what we experience
(Nerdwriter1). Likewise, biological traits such as skin color and assigned sex
serve as a way to neatly categorize individuals. However, scholars and philosophers
have long dreamed of alternatives to this reality. French philosopher Michel
Foucault, for instance, offered the idea of heterotopias. These are spaces that
constantly exist in a dynamic state and resist attempts to reinforce conformity
within its sphere (Nerdwriter1). When sharing examples of heterotopias,
Foucault cited environments where people of different classes, races, and genders
would mix in a way that normal society at the time would not allow. These
include spaces such as sea ships, brothels, prisons, cemeteries, and fairs to
name a few
At this point, the transition from physical spaces to
digital and its effects on identity probably feels abstract. This phenomenon
does exist outside of the realm of speculative fiction and academic discourse;
there is real quantitative proof that it is happening in real time. In her TED-talk,
“Social Media and the End of Gender,” Johanna Blakely discusses how analytics from
the web forces advertisers to reassess how they market to different groups. Blakely
explains that traditionally, advertising has relied upon classifying target
audiences into strict categories that supposedly decreased the ambiguity of
marketing. These demographics include gender, race, and age (Blakely). For
example, when marketing toys aimed at children, developers make sure that they
fit neatly into the category of boy and girl. If a pitch for a potential toy
has cross-gender appeal, then the idea is often rejected before it can pick up
steam (@CrackMcCraigen).
It is one thing to divide products along clear lines in
physical spaces such as supermarkets and toy isles. Maintaining these
categories online, however, is much more difficult. The Internet allows for a
greater level of anonymity, people can connect with others outside of their own
background, and measuring click rate and interaction with an add only reveals how
popular its content is rather than who is clicking. As a result, marketers must
instead focus on individual’s interest rather than try to reaffirm outdated
demographic systems (Blakely).
While social media has facilitated change in how corporations
assess identity, individual users still cling to these labels even in the most potentially
transformative of online spaces. In 2010, Twitter reported that 24% of its user
base was African American, which is double the amount of representation in the national
population. If a user wants to engage in conversation outside their usual sphere
of knowledge, it is quit literally a click away. Despite this, research at the
time also showed that Twitter’s online conversations were heavily segregated
(Zuckerman). Even when people are exposed to new narratives or ideas online,
that contrast strengthens in-group/out-group mentality (Yardi and Boyd 2). In
fact, these traditional ways of constructing identity are often reassuring to
people, especially during times of uncertainty or crisis (26-27).
In a 2010 TED Talk, blogger Ethan Zuckerman describes a
phenomenon which he calls “imaginary cosmopolitanism.” This means that despite
there being an infrastructure in place that should theoretically facilitate global
interaction, people in online spaces typically choose to filter out content
that is not seen as relevant to their world or pre-existing interests. Multiple
studies show that Americans typically pay exclusive attention to news about
their own country or nations the United States are in direct conflict with
(Zuckerman).
The solution to these digital blind spots is not to rely on
technology, where algorithms will simply reinforce user’s viewing habits based
on their history, but to further introduce a human element into the equation.
Several efforts such as Global Voices attempt to curate news for people and
expose them to narratives they would otherwise be oblivious toward. Similarly,
teams of volunteer translators around the globe work to translate the most
interesting content on the web into different languages with greater accuracy
than what tools such as Google Translate can provide (Zuckerman).
Part of what makes cyberpunk texts such as Ghost in the
Shell compelling was not how it accurately speculated the progress of
technology. Instead, it succeeds based on its ability to offer reflection on humanity.
The characters in these stories must grapple with an environmental framework
that technology has created around them and decide how to define themselves in
a setting where the digital is given as much importance as the physical. Foucault
touched upon this when he stated that heterotopias hold a mirror up to the looker,
and simultaneously makes them and the space they are connected to both real and
unreal. What social media offers is something similar, the ability to reaffirm
the self while also exposing the artifice of labels used to define the self. This
is not a natural process, however, and requires people to actively engage with
these digital spaces to achieve their full effect.
References
Blakely, Johanna. “Social Media and the End of Gender.” TED,
Dec. 2010, https://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender#t-4403.
@CrackMcCraigen “When I first pitched PPG toys I said the
figures should come with an action punch feature and hair you could comb. The
response I got was ‘what shelf do we put that on?’” Twitter, 16 Aug.
2021, 1:24 PM, https://twitter.com/CrackMcCraigen/status/1427320300287369260.
Foucault, Michel. Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias. 8
May 2021. Web. 3 September 2021, https://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en/.
Johnson, Peter. Heterotopian Studies Home. January 2021. Web.
3 September 2021, https://www.heterotopiastudies.com/.
Puschak, Evan. “Ghost in the Shell: Identity in Space.” YouTube,
uploaded by Nerdwriter1, 16 Sept. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTnl1FVFBw&t=353s.
Steinmetz, Katy. “Teens Are over Face-to-Face Communication,
Study Says.” Time, Time, 10 Sept. 2018,
time.com/5390435/teen-social-media-usage/.
Yardi, Sarita and Danah Boyd. Dynamic Debates: An
Analysis of Group Polarization over Time on Twitter. 2010. Georgia
Institute of Technology.
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