'Who are you?' - we are involved in constructing an image that reflects us, the significance of this is the culture surrounding us, the thing that makes us who we are and how we want to be seen.
'I think, therefore I am' - our identity is based on social constructs; class, religion, gender and predetermined roles that construct us, making the notion of the individual less central.
'From citizen to consumer' - Edward Bernays said our identity is based not on behaving as active citizens but as passive consumers; consumer goods are about creating and satisfying desires, informing people about what they should want.
'The rise of the individual' - by the late 1960s and 1970s the notion of individualism began to take hold. Freud’s ideas about the Self seemed to imply that beneath the surface there was an ‘essential self’ – the core of who you actually are.
'Branding and lifestyle' - branding is the association of a personality with a product. advertisers sell the personality rather than the product, people therefore choose products that match their own self-image.
'Who will we be?' - Participants in the former are forced to construct their identity within the confines of the template provided; data mining – allows corporations to create products designed to meet the needs we reveal in our personal information.
2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.
2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.
DC Comics - Reflects my identity as I like superheroes and villains, explains my particular film choice, interests in fiction and action.
Nike - Portrays my lifestyle choice, the comfort of Nike but also the brand name as something that is well known and well respected.
Levi's Jeans - Well established, traditional
Lacoste - Sport, wealth, well established brand
Maserati - Class, sophistication
3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?
4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.
The increasing dominance of the mass media and what Baudrillard calls ‘media saturation’ results in high cultural value being placed on external factors such as physical beauty and fashion sense over internal traits such as intelligence or compassion. The influence of the media in providing the images, the products, the role models and the ideas that we use to help construct an idea of identity and image has been tackled widely infilm. Fight Club (1999) is direct in its exploration of the construction of self-image and the de-centred self; more recently films such as Shutter Island (2010), Ghost Writer (2010) and Inception (2010) have played with similar ideas.
5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?
I think my social media is definitely an accurate reflection of me as I hardly even use social media. The main source I use is Whatsapp; I hardly ever upload on Snapchat or Instagram purely because I do not like to reflect my life on social media or show others what I am doing all the time. I simply prefer reality rather than the constructed realities online and therefore would never construct myself to suit an online persona.
6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?
I think once personal information is revealed, it feels as though you are being spied on and therefore it does become an invasion of privacy, however I am happy for products to be sold to me through my social media presence as it becomes helpful to see things that I personally like without searching for it.
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