Task 1

Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture that is, in your opinion, panoptic. Write an explanation of this, in approximately 200-300 words, employing key Foucauldian language, such as 'Docile Bodies' or 'self-regulation', and using not less than 5 quotes from the text 'Panopticism' in Thomas, J. (2000) 'Reading Images', NY, Palgrave McMillan.

Facebook is a huge part of contemporay culture and to a certain extent is Panoptic. The power Facebook holds can only exist when someone decides to join (currently there are over 500 million active users) and enter into this relationship as binary opposites. Users become ‘perfectly individualised and constantly visable.’ (Foucault in Reading Images, (2000), p.64), sharing photos, views, friends and events to anyone who wishes to view them.
     In this current social example, it is much different to the original Panopticons where inmates were locked in a physical cell. In this society, users have willingly accepted and sign-up to Facebook knowledgeable ‘he knows himself to be observed’ (p.65). 

     Users accept the role of the disciplined. The discipliner, Facebook, is not a single person, but a machine and even though it is owned by someone, the ‘invisable machine’ disciplines users and dis-allows them to communicate certain things which is believed to be inappropriate. ‘A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.’ (p.66). As the users page can be viewed by anyone it implores further another Foucauldian term, docile bodies. These ‘docile bodies’ are self-monitoring, self-correcting and obedient as they know they are being constantly observed.
     ‘Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine’ (p.66). As I have explored, Facebook allows users to be the disciplined, but interestingly, users can also become the discipliner of others. There are ‘report’ buttons which allow us to regulate fellow users. Not only do people self-regulate, but those who do not are caught by the ‘docile bodies’ created by the machine, and are disciplined by the removal of their inappropriate content or are banned.
     Facebook is simply the face for all social networking site I have used to explore the Panoptic relationship between discipliner and disciplined in this contemporary culture. There are many more, however, it is clear to see that there is not only panopticism present, but it has evolved and become more powerful.