Who's Got the Power

Power within the age of technology makes for an extreme spectrum of attending aspects. It would seem that power resides in everything, and as a result is completely overlooked because it is such a constant.  When first signing up to Pinterest, the power structure is very aloof, you spend time creating a personal space and inserting factors of your personality. But once you’ve learned to ropes your pretty much stuck.

Foucault argues, as mentioned in the reading from Turkle, “that power in modern society is imposed not by the personal presence and brute force of an elite caste but by the way each individual learns the art of self-surveillance” (Turkle p.247). I feel like I have created myself a new space, a space of my own but a space that I proud of when someone follows me. However, have they followed me because the like the personality behind the profile? Or was it just one pin of mine that caught their eye? As users, we constant ‘survey ourselves’. We want to create an environment that gets us lots of followers. We want to find the latest post and pin them before another profile does. I became oddly sucked into the power of Pinterest when all I signed up for was to find a new art project.

Cyber Power
 https://www.newsgram.com/we-see-india-as-a-great-internet-power-in-coming-years-chinas-letv/ (2015)

Turkle said the “internet is a space of opportunity”, yet are these opportunities to create power? There is talk of work being created through the app of Pinterest, it has such a huge demographic that people are using it as a form of advertisement. It holds new age power to those working class, displaying their art, tattoos, hairdressing, there are no limitations at this stage. Creating a new expansion for the business but residing all the power with the owner as they show what they wish to who they wish. For the much more common user we are simply drawn to the best pins. Clicking on one creates a ripple effect that you never see the end of until it daylight again and you’ve forgotten what sleep feels like.

In creating more and more opportunities within the internet are we extending our power? Of course leading us back to one of the most argumentative topic of today; Are these new forms of power creating a negative effect?  With this growing community and the constant backlash it receives from those that lived within a more ‘intimate time’ us of the technological age must prove ourselves. With all these burning questions, there have been many worthy studies to mention and support the beneficial elements of these forums.

As mentioned in the lecture power comes out of connections (LECTURE), Pinterest surely creates those connection. It has become as some people would say ‘a way of life’ or ‘their life’ because is such an expression and access into the world we are living. There is the drive of other spaces and the new connections that it can create as a result leaving very intimate yet very public place.  How much more can these types of forums spread? What kind of power can be attained?

Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Pendry, F.L., Salvatore, J. (2015). Individual and social benefits of online discussion forums. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321500268X

News Gram (2015). Retrieved from https://www.newsgram.com/we-see-india-as-a-great-internet-power-in-coming-years-chinas-letv/

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.