• Home Page
  • Power And Influence In The Specular Economy By David Marshall

Power And Influence In The Specular Economy By David Marshall

Improved Essays
Show More
In his article, “The Specular Economy”, David Marshall elaborates on the expansion of new media forms and their role in people’s ability to manufacture public online personas. Marshall also reveals the power and influence that social media has given individuals. This power and influence has come from the space created by the Internet, where images and text can be shared instantaneously. Because of this, online personalities have become our populations newest form of entertainment. It is now in this decade that we are seeing a populous so in control of the ebb and flow of popular culture. We now see more everyday people with no exceptional talents becoming online sensations and attaining celebrity status overnight. However, the rapid acquirement …show more content…
However, what was truly frightening about this film is the acceptance, popularity and fandom that followed the acts of a criminal. One of the most recent examples of this alarming trend is the glorification of Tay K, a 17-year-old rapper wanted for capital murder. Since his arrest and the release of his story, his music has gained over 5 million views on Youtube, over 12 thousand followers on Twitter and 3 million listeners on Soundcloud. This is an unsettling example of the what the kind of power an individual can have over popular culture. In “The Specular Economy”, Marshall made the point that the 1970’s was the “Me-generation”. However, I believe that this generation has gone far beyond what was seen in the 70’s. It is true that we are in what Marshall calls “specular economy” in that we have an incredibly complex production of the self, utilizing the screens of social media via the Internet and mobiles, where we have collectively become more conscious of how we present ourselves. In “New Media-New Self”, Marshall states, “An entire new industry—an economy of circulating images, information, text, conversation and interpersonal exchanges—has been built to service the now more pervasive and oddly democratic construction of public identities”. Before the formation of this new industry, the trends of popular culture were centrally decided by producers and creators of entertainment. Now we have a generation where each individual has the power to be an idol or celebrity. There is now longer a need for a prerequisite of talent or good character required to attain stardom. Unfortunately, the specular economy we are now living in has produced a new establishment of personal presentation that is only beginning in its dissension towards disturbing

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Josh Neufeld's Essay 'The Influencing Machines'
    • 1814 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Josh Neufeld's Essay 'The Influencing Machines'

    It is quite obvious that within recent years technology has entrapped Americans in a thick, sticky web of social media networks, pop-culture styled news sites, and opinionated blogs. This section of technological advances adversely influences the American culture by poisoning the most private sectors of citizens daily lives. Most social media networkers blindly believe that this new trend of technology only enhances their lives through its instant-satisfactory style and the ability to create interpersonal relationships with a multitude of people. But for those who can see through the cracks in the media’s façade, it is obvious that this evolving technology can have devastating effects. Technology not only has the power to critically alter mental…

    • 1814 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Social Media Essay
    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Social Media Essay

    Social media is something that we use in our day to day lives, but have we ever sat down and thought about how it has shaped our actions and personalities? Carrie Kerpen, the CEO of Likeable Media, dives into how we have developed and grown around social media in her article How Has Social Media Changed Us? Kerpen discusses with other strong figures in social media about what we post, and why we post it. She feels that is important to understand the impact that social media has on our personal brands. In the business world social media is used constantly in order to connect with people that we may have not had access to otherwise, which helps to create our personal brand. Within this article we are asked to question our social media habits, and what we are trying to achieve with our image online. But do we consider how our interactions on…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Im So Totally Close To You Analysis
    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Im So Totally Close To You Analysis

    In Clive Thompsons ““I 'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You”, it is evident that social media has indisputably become a significant part of modern communication and relationships. Even though there are many positives to networking, it is easy to get caught up in everything social media has to offer. According to a study conducted by Marketing Charts, people between the ages of 18 and 34 spend almost 4 hours on social media every day! The ability to distinguish what society values and what we our selves’ value is the key in how we aspire and seek our good life. It is easy to lose a sense of identity when we spend so much time investing in what’s going on outside our bubble. Conversely, as exemplified in Antigone, when we spend too much time inside our bubble, we can also lose sense of our individuality and emotion. So again, moderation is key. The ability to co-exist is crucial in maintaining a stable society. Thompson’s article brings attention to the dangers of becoming completely consumed by society where as in Antigone, we see the perils of completely isolating oneself from the general populations opinions. Think of the pursuit of the good life as a sailboat. Our own ideas and ambitions are the rudder, it steers us to where we want to go, where society is the water surrounding us. If we indulge completely into society, we will sink, however if we isolate ourselves from it, we go no…

    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Liking Is For Cowards By Jonathan Franzen
    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Liking Is For Cowards By Jonathan Franzen

    There are a multitude of existing websites in which people can create accounts based around their own personal characteristics and preferences. However, this also means they are able to log on to a number of these websites and potentially lie about certain aspects of their lives, the most common one being age, for example. As long as someone’s sitting alone in a room behind a computer screen, they are able to be whoever they want to be because those who are exposed to them on the Internet cannot see or hear or meet them for themselves. In “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts,” Jonathan Franzen touches on the fragility of reputations and the overall concern for likeability, explaining that when you imagine a person defined by a desperation to be liked, you see “a person without integrity, without a center. In more pathological cases, you see a narcissista person who can’t tolerate the tarnishing of his or her self-image that not being liked represents, and who therefore either withdraws from human contact or goes to extreme, integrity-sacrificing lengths to be likeable” (145). Technology is allowing its users to build and maintain a certain reputation online that is either different or less fragile than the one they possess in reality. The circumstances under which these reputations are upheld are ever-changing, which leads to the variety of ways users manage their reputations. In an article by Mary Madden and Aaron Smith of the Pew Research center entitled “Reputation Management and Social Media,” they point out that “while some Internet users are careful to project themselves online in a way that suits specific audiences, other internet users embrace an open approach to sharing information about themselves and do not take steps to restrict what they share” (N.p.). The anonymity the Internet and social media platforms provide enables people to conceal…

    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Isabel Evans
    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Isabel Evans

    Social media has come a long way since it was first introduced to the world of technology. Where would society stand without social media today? In Isabel H. Evans’ article “Head in the (Instagrammed) Clouds”, she states a common international problem: the overuse of social media. Evans indicates that online sites are a distraction and are taking over daily routine. She argues that although she uses Twitter and Facebook herself, sites like those are a waste of time. She justifies her argument by mentioning that social media is a distraction, can alter one's ego and can even be dangerous at times. Evans creates evidence by using personal references, previous encounters, and observations. Although she also mentions that social media is helpful,…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    ' Five Reasons Social Media Is Dangerous To Me, By Glennon Doyle Melton
    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ' Five Reasons Social Media Is Dangerous To Me, By Glennon Doyle Melton

    The author shares a personal experience on how she has changed over the usage of social media: “Social media has transformed me into an input junkie”, “...asking for anyone else’s permission of validation ”, “lured me toward shallow and rigid thinking”, “threatened my only source of real peace and joy”, are the “dangers” she has learned while fasting from internet. The author revealed that in the valuable moments she had faced, she felt the urge to show gratitude through the usage of social media: “how am I going to describe this, and where? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram?”. Rather than staying present in the real life with “real” people and the moments, the author wanted to share her experience to the society over the screen and to get a validation from them, “Do you “like” me? Am I special enough?”. The author presents to the readers that one of the main reasons why society uses social media is because, unknowingly, society desires approval. As the society craves for an anonymous approval, they compare themselves to an another over the screen. The author emphasizes that the social media was a “Thief of Joy”, which clinged onto her mind no matter how satisfied she was with her life. While reflecting back to the “dangers” the author has encountered, she encourages the readers to value and cherish time by living in the moment. The author wants the readers to acknowledge she was too busy chasing the “virtual” goals in exchange of the very moment in front of her…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Peggy Orenstein's Essay 'I Tweet, Therefore I Am'
    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Peggy Orenstein's Essay 'I Tweet, Therefore I Am'

    As technology advances, communicating with one another also advances. Social Networking is one main form of communication of today. Millions of people draw into being connected that friends become fans. As Orenstein mentions that “The risk of the performance culture, of the packaged self, is that it erodes the very relationships it purports to create, and alienates us from our own humanity” (285). Orenstein’s words are so clearly written on how social networking has changed her communication, her private life not being so private that she turns to social networking to post herself expressing in a very neutral tone; that you could read that this essay…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Ty Burr's The Faces In The Mirror
    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ty Burr's The Faces In The Mirror

    Celebrities are just ordinary people everyone knows about. Sometimes they seem more extravagant, high up on their pedestals, but in reality they are human beings. Ty Burr explores the changing face of the celebrity in the excerpt, “The Faces in the Mirror.” In particular, he delves into the modern case of the digital celebrity, with screens everywhere making a new starlet every day. According to Burr, we lose ourselves in the “roiling sea of infotainment” (32).…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Way We Live Now: Social Media
    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Way We Live Now: Social Media

    Social media has been around since 1997, however, it became popular around 2003 to 2005. Nowadays, social media has been incorporated into the millennial generation and their lives mainly revolve around it. In Peggy Orenstein’s “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” she asserts social media has overtaken people’s lives through personal and social reality. Orenstein believes social media wastes people’s time, causes people be unable to identify between their personal and private lives, and ruins relationships.…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Alex Lickerman The Effect Of Technology On Relationships Analysis
    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alex Lickerman The Effect Of Technology On Relationships Analysis

    With social media and the internet being a big part of our lives as teenagers and young adults today, there’s no limit to all the possibilities and opportunities you can come across with just the click of a button. My cousin, Kayla, and I have watched and witnessed people on Youtube and Vine become movie stars, just from their supporters and fans never giving up on them. The internet can be a wonderful place for people to connect and help each other become successful, but it can also be a way to escape reality. While following and subscribing to our favorite social media stars, Kayla and I also connect online with friends and friends of friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meeting people that you heard went to your rival school on Facebook…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Social Media Affects An Individual's Identity
    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Social Media Affects An Individual's Identity

    Roberts, “Implications of User Choice: The Cultural Logic of ‘MySpace or Facebook by Danah Boyd,”’ and “Convergence Culture,” by Henry Jenkins. Although many individual’s use social media, it affects people’s identity by not being able to show their true selves online because they don’t want to be left out, how they present what products they wear in their pictures, and every story gets told through social media.…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Comparison Of Social Media In Zadie Smith's Generation Why?
    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Comparison Of Social Media In Zadie Smith's Generation Why?

    Social media has become a part of us. It is with us whenever and wherever we go. However, social media may not always be beneficial for us. In Zadie Smith’s Essay “Generation Why,” she provides a commentary on a movie called “The Social Network.” Throughout the commentary, she would mock the Zuckerberg character in the movie, and I think the scorn she directed at the character might have been used to express her disapproval of the real Mark Zuckerberg. Even so, I didn’t really understand the reason behind Smith’s reproachful attitude towards Zuckerberg until Smith brings out her argument about how Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s creation, causes a phenomenon in which people would “reduce” themselves in order to fit the descriptions that make up…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    How Social Media Is A Toxic Mirror Analysis
    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Social Media Is A Toxic Mirror Analysis

    A major problem arising in preteens, teens and young adults is the increasing use of social media and the impact it has been playing on their self-confidence. For as long as there have been strong influencers in society, there has been the issue of comparison. People have judged themselves based off how others appear since before there was even a television to showcase them, but with the increase of smartphones and the internet, so came the increase of something else far more harmful for this issue of comparison, social media. Social media, as a whole, gives a single person access to millions of other people and increases the pressure to appear flawless on their accounts. In the article “How Social Media is a Toxic Mirror”, published by Rachel Simmons in Time Magazine, Simmons’ main idea is how social media has become a method of directly comparing yourself to others based purely on what is posted on the internet.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Role Of Pop Culture And The Critical Approach
    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Role Of Pop Culture And The Critical Approach

    It may not come as any surprise that society is greatly influenced by present-day social media such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Celebrities have mass amounts of followers; they put their daily lives on the Internet for us to all see, and we all catch onto the latest fads. This is not a new concept, however. For as long as one could imagine, that is how long members of society have been influenced by pop culture. Through the examination of three approaches, the Functionalist, the Critical, and the Interaction, we are able to further understand how pop culture and mass media affects each and every one of us.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Brief Summary Of Social Media
    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Brief Summary Of Social Media

    In a time when society is more egocentric than ever, people must resist or conform to a form of life that revolves strongly around knowing what everybody is doing all the time through social media platforms. Ms. Ham and Mr. Standage focus on how trends draw people out of their normal social interactions and into a world that seemingly revolves around themselves (We Shall Overshare, Mary Ham 280). Their focus upon the false sense of attention that people get from sharing about themselves shows how the audience in each article should be able to relate to this kind of situation. The world that people live in today is full of self-centered beings that seek only to grab attention for themselves and distancing themselves from their friends and family…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2023 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings