What is the social panopticon?
The panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells. From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate but the inmates can’t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether or not they are being watched.
What would Foucault say about social media?
Foucault died before the advent of the internet, yet his studies of social conditioning and identity formation in relation to power are applicable to life online. Seen from a Foucaultian perspective, social media is more than a vehicle for exchanging information. Social media is a vehicle for identity-formation.
What is Michel Foucault panopticism about?
Panopticism. Whereas the panopticon is the model for external surveillance, panopticism is a term introduced by French philosopher Michel Foucault to indicate a kind of internal surveillance. In panopticism, the watcher ceases to be external to the watched.
What is an example of panopticism?
Now, Foucault says that this does not only happen in the army, and that this need for efficiency has caused all society to function under Panopticism. An example would be money: we are all separated by how much we have yet we are also united and equalized by being judged on the same objective numeric scale.
Why is Panopticism important to society?
Panopticism plays an important role in our daily life and society in which we are living; as it becomes functionless without Panopticism. We have known that society cannot function without control. The people take the order of the discipline and our society that controls us for granted.
What would Foucault say?
Foucault emphasizes that power is not discipline, rather discipline is simply one way in which power can be exercised. He also uses the term ‘disciplinary society’, discussing its history and the origins and disciplinary institutions such as prisons, hospitals, asylums, schools and army barracks.
How is social media an enforcer of panopticism?
Social media provides hidden surveillance and, hence, it is a strong enforcer of panopticism’s central ideas. The social media has the power to monitor an individual’s activities without their full attention that they are being observed. For as long as a person participates in social media, their activities are tracked.
What is the meaning of the term panopticism?
The term “panopticism” is then formed from this idea and can be applied to different social contexts and institutions, where it is the surveillance of the public’s social norms and habits within society (Foucault, 1979: 207). If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
How is the Panopticon a metaphor for society?
In fact, he argued that the system that Bentham was striving to perfect was an apt metaphor for many different types of social organizations and structures: schools, factories, and governments, for example.
How is social media similar to the Foucauldian Panopticon?
The social media is, therefore, virtual and does not have any physical structures to impose on people, unlike the Foucauldian panopticon which had a central tower for asymmetrical surveillance. However, social media imposes similar effects upon people. Michael Foucault’s ideas on panopticism are based on Bentham’s architectural figure.
