Social Media And Panopticon Essay Example

The Panopticon is defined as a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Bentham.The concept of the design was to allow all prisoners to be observed by a single security guard.A social structure of today’s world which comes to mind when we think of the Panopticon is Social media.Social media is just a modern day Panopticon  but in which people enter voluntarily.

In today’s day and age ,social media has become an integral part of people’s lives.You check social media before you go to sleep and you check it again when you wake up.Although we do not know it but we are trapped inside the vicious web of social media.People enter social media on their own choice but this is not necessarily about the exit from it.while it may not seem obvious but social media is also just a kind of a prison.

Taking the example of Instagram,one of the most popular social media platforms.It has one of the biggest consumer base.People create their own profiles,enter all their details and information voluntarily  for the whole world to see.These online profiles are  symbolic to the individual cells of the Panopticon.In the words of Focoult about the Panopticon,”He is seen but he does not see.He is the object of information but never a subject in communication”(Michel Focoult,Discipline and Punish ,page 200).This line accurately describes the people on these social media platforms.They are seen by  social media corporations,they provide their whole data voluntarily to these corporations but they do not anything about them.It is a one way trade.People do not know anything about these corporations but they know everything about these people,which is just like in the Panopticon where the supervisor knows everything about the inmates but the inmates are clueless about the supervisors.The Government is also an entity which acts as a supervisor as it  is constantly monitoring the people on the internet.It sees everything but its  physical presence is not known to the people.An instance where it can be seen that the government is always watching is when people get arrested for doing illegal activities online.

Moreover,people on social media post regularly and alter their posts according to the reaction they get from the people who watch their posts.Even though sometimes people don not admit this but they are conscious about the likes they get on their posts and therefore  they  modify their posts to gather the maximum amount of likes.It is almost like people who are posting are performers and the people watching is their audience.This is just like in the Panopticon where  the prisoners modified  their behavior in the fear of who might be watching them.This is very appropriately stated by Focoult in the line ,” 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”(Focoult,page-201).

Another parallel which can be drawn between the Panopticon and the social media platforms is the absence of guards and enforcers.Just like in Bentham’s Panopticon where there were no guards or enforcers who kept the prisoners in check.It was the prisoners themselves who kept them in check.It was them who maintained all the discipline and stayed organized due to the fear of being watched.The social media platforms are also kept in check by the consumers themselves.There are no guards or a single higher power on social media which runs social media.A very apt example of this can be seen in today’s cancel culture.Whenever a popular person like a social media influencer says or posts something which is not agreed upon by the majority of people,the people try to bring the influencer down.The people can destroy any influencer instantly if they chose to.Due to the fear of this happening,people tend to post neutral content.while cancel culture is not something that everyone agrees on,the fear of it ultimately keeps everything in check.

Likewise to the Panopticon ,where the prisoners were constantly under surveillance,the consumers on social media are constantly watching other people and also simultaneously being watched.It is  almost  like they are the prisoners and the audience at the same time.