The Self
Media environments and the effects on identity
"... and who are you?"
"I--I hardly know, sir, just at present--at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
Image appropriated from The Medium is the Massage
In western society, being heavily influenced by Hollywood and dramatized stories, narratives hold a critical role in the lives of individuals. Paul John Eakin, an autobiography theorist, expresses that society has an expectation for each person to have a personal story, a personal narrative. It plays a key role in the formation of identity, a concept instilled in people from a young age. He argues that the rules and expectations society places on the genre of autobiography extend to simultaneously function as rules for individual identity. When these rules for self-narration and autobiography are broken, the author’s identity suffers consequences.
The Power of the Narrative
How do I look?
If social media is an extension of the self, people will want to present the best version of their online self--a trend evident in the notoriously cumbersome process of choosing a good profile picture. Erving Goffman, who is considered the founding father of sociology, coined the term “face work,” in which individuals of society are actors that must work to maintain the way they are presented and the image that others perceive. This concept was originally specified to the self social situations, but can also be broadened and applied to the online self. People constantly have to commit to face work and maintain what they present in their online fronts.
“Portrait of a Woman with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird”
By Alex Smyth
Appropriation of Frida Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird"
I kind of wanted to leave the piece more up to interpretation, but all I can say is that it draws attention to what we define as "femininity." My appropriated title reflects the loss of "self" and the addition of "woman" as another way to show that.
“The New Religion of New Media and the Sacrifice for Likes”
By Anju Aoki
From studying in the media stream in CAP at UBC, I have had the chance to learn about the many different ways media affects us daily. As a woman, I was very shocked and interested in the ways media portrayed and objectified women...
“attention”
By Valiant Chan
The piece is composed of home videos filmed by my father. As the youngest child in the entire family, I was told that I was the centre of attention. However, after looking into the videos, I saw that all my family members wanted attention in some way or form ...
“People of Color”
By Tayah Lee
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My piece is called “People of Color”, a visual image comprised of 12 different images. Each image is a still frame from some of the Top Grossing Hollywood Box Office movies of 2016 that I have seen, according to Box Office Mojo. Each black and white still frame displays some or all of the main actors of the film, with each person of color highlighted and saturated in a bright, almost fluorescent hue. My piece aims to comment on the diversity, or lack thereof in some cases, of a lot of major Hollywood films. The appropriated films included in my selection are Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, The Legend of Tarzan, The Magnificent Seven, Central Intelligence, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and Captain America: Civil War.
The Internet and its connections makes the world smaller and much more accessible, and it has the capability to bring to light its beautiful diversity. However, a historical trend of repeatedly presenting a very small group of people as representations of what people are “supposed” to look like has created unhealthy standards and expectations for identity.
