Panoptican

Michael Foucault advances a fundamental understanding of power. Foucault sees power as a productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Foucault believes that power circulated in network ( Brock, 89). Michael Foucault’s ideals are much like a social network of power. Foucault’s ideas in relation to Facebook create an unequal balance of power. All these elements can be represented perfectly through the Facebook world which is uses as a site to communicate interactive discourses.

                Foucault’s ideas of power can relate to today’s society influencing human behavioural practices by using the internet as a level of power structure. Using the internet is an essential part of our culture, where we now rely on it to find out important events, news and a way of communication all around the world. The internet in many ways is used for interactive discourse, which can both be a public or private event. Most interactive discourses are used over popular social networking sites such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter, where you can interact with friends and family you know close to your network or anywhere else across the world.

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are all perfect examples of ways in which Foucault viewed power. Creating profiles and updating statuses with personal details to allow people to have a view of our lives. Also many people add people they don’t know to Facebook and pretend they know them based on their online persona. This represents one of Foucaults main ideas because he says that power circulates in networks. Facebook uses these profiles to receive their own personal power over what people are allowed to have access to on their profiles and who they decide to become friends with.

Discourse related to human behaviour which then becomes everyday though. Facebook is a great example of Foucault’s theory of the panoptican self surveillance ideal because we control and create profiles of what we want our peers to see. Foucault ideas of surveillance as a panoptican can relate to present day online social networks which display our own personal identities. This model of the panoptican was used many years ago for prisons as a tower placed in the center of the prison so the guards could watch inmates at all times. The real success to thus design was that the inmates couldn’t see the tower making them act like the guards were there at all times behaving accordingly. Being a member of Facebook you can never be sure who is watching you. In the beginning Facebook was designed to be able to contact people in our social network to keep in touch. Facebook is now what i feels a way the government and the owner of Facebook can have full access of surveillance on many people’s lives around the world.

Facebook exemplifies Foucaults theory that he sees power as productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Facebook is a form of production because, you are able to create profiles and become friends with new people which also allows the government and owner to have full access to your lives making it beneficial to them. Moreover, Foucault believes that power is not something you possess.

                One of the central points with the panoptican according to Foucault is that it is asymmetrical. In the case of Facebook and many other social networks the owner and person at the top of the company should have the tools and database to be able to view and have all access to the people in the Facebook world. This is much like the panoptican surveillance because there is always someone watching but you just don’t know who it is that is watching you. In many cases the government has full access to Facebook is a way to always have a tight watch over people so you constantly can monitor what is going on in their lives much like the jail. As a member of Facebook you also have the option to friend or unfriend people you wish, for the most part controlling who you let monitor your life.

Michael Foucault’s ideals are greatly represented through the Facebook world where you are a product of self-surveillance as you tweak your profile just the way you want the world to perceive you. Foucault’s central understanding of power he sees power as productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Furthermore, Foucault believed that power circulates in networks (Brock,89). Michael Foucault’s ideals are much like a social network of power. All of these elements can be repressed perfectly through the Facebook world which is used as a site to communicate interactive discourse.