Final Project- Excerpt #1

Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon was an architectural plan that would later be referred to figuratively by Michel Foucault. The panopticon, in a literal sense, was a design of a building that would house prisoners. The design consists of a circular building with a watchtower in the middle and jail cells circling the watchtower. There would be two windows in each jail cell: one window would look “into” the circle and toward the watchtower while the other window would look “outward” toward the surroundings outside of the structure. According to Bentham, the underlying idea of this structure would allow constant surveillance of all prisoners. Therefore, prisoners would be discouraged to try and go against the rules (Foucault 200). However, what if the prisoners never knew if they were being watched or not? Foucault expands in his essay Discipline and Punish, “Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (201). Inmates are less likely to do anything that would go against the law because they would have this constant paranoia of “what if I get caught” or “they can see my every move.” Now, who is to say that this is not currently happening today? Outside of Dystopian novels and films, it seems like this concept of Panopticism (coined by Foucault) is becoming increasingly prevalent. If people feel like they are constantly under surveillance, they will be controlled to only behave well. The Panopticon of society today is social media, and its ability to take over the mindsets of the human population is only increasing as time goes on.

            Social media is undoubtedly beneficial to society. Not only does it allow people to connect over long distances, it allows for long-distance friends to stay in touch with each other. Without social media, communication would be archaic; who could imagine simply contacting others only through e-mail or cellphones? Additionally, social media serves as a platform for “commonality of interest, real-time information sharing, targeted advertising, [and] increased news cycle speed” (Claywell). Social networking allows people to meet others who share similar interests with them which diversifies their social groups. It also allows for people to share any information they choose to their social media “friends” whether they know them in real life or not. In a sense of business, social media allows for targeted advertising which develops according to a person’s ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes.’ Since nearly everyone uses social media nowadays, news companies (whether they be local or national) can distribute important stories and news more effectively because of the time people spend online. While these attributes are advantageous, they work to pull in users and keep them on there for more time than what is necessary. Nowadays, people can spend hours and hours on social media and not even realize. Thus, social media has almost created a “false reality,” where most people become very invested into social media (more invested than real life). This has led to a social hierarchy, loss of privacy, and a way for the general population to be controlled.