Collective identity: blog task

Collective identity: blog task

1) 'Who are you?'

Regardless of what one might think, we all construct an image of ourselves that we use to communicate our own identity. What we think we are, the person we want to be and the person we want to be seen to be are 3 entirely different things. The context of the culture that's around us is what plays a huge part and things like the representation of cultural values and construction of our role models is informed by the media.

'I think, therefore I am'

There was once a time when identity was viewed as something 'firm, fixed and pre-determined.' Our perception of ourselves and the presentation of ourselves was based primarily on social constructs defining the interpersonal relationships in the groups we found ourselves in. Identity was something that class, religion, gender and the predetermined roles contributed to, making the notion of being 'individual' less central.

'From citizen to consumer'

The post-industrial  consumer boom of the early 20th century is what saw a move in people adopting an identity for themselves behaving not as 'active citizens but as passive consumers.' People were encouraged to buy what they wanted and desired as opposed to just what they needed, and advertising was a thing that influenced this. It would more often that not support a positive self-image which would allow for people to conform to expectations within society.

'The rise of the individual'

The late 1960s and 1970s is what saw the transition to individualism take place where conformist values were being abandoned. 'Difference' was something to embraced and part of a 'fragmented self' according to Lacan where we have many identities. With this, advertisers presented their products in a manner where they appeared like they gave audience members the option to select and define an identity once they purchased them.

'Branding and lifestyle'

In the 1970s and 1980s, what we saw more of is an increase in lifestyle marketing and the general importance of brands, with this becoming the essentially the very personality of a product. This works as consumers end up purchasing products that more closely reflect their own self-image. Lifestyle marketing is marketing which utilises the values that one may possess and has implements connotations that reflect these values to help it be more valued in terms of self-image. With this it can actually be argued that individualism has actually eventuated to where there's a strong want to conform to ideas of self-image that large corporations provide.

'Who will we be'

Social networking now appears to be changing the way we create a public image for ourselves. Whereas before personal home pages would have afforded us the opportunity to  both shape and manipulate the materials of identity, social networks make us more confined since we have to work within the template we've been given. However we still do get to create a public image of ourselves to be 'consumed as a media product by others.' Companies also use this in what's called data mining since it means corporations can market products to use that meet needs we reveal in our personal data.

2)

• Converse - this brands reflects a sense of my identity as they have are not only not worn by pretty much everyone unlike Nike and Adidas, but they also have an iconic status among people while not being overly pronounced 
• TDE - this brand helps reflect a sense of my own identity as their push to cross as many boundaries as possible within music is what I think represents the strive for innovation that I have
• Android - this brand reflects a sense of my identity as they provide customers with a good amount of autonomy in doing what they want with their products. Rather than be restricted to such a high degree, things like creativity are heralded by them
• #MERKY - this brand reflects a sense of my identity since they were started up in a more conventional way and not a typical manner. Rather than having backing from things like major corporations it was fundamentally established by one man
• YouTube - I feel that this brands reflects the more creative side of my identity as it provides users around the world with an avenue to share content on globally which they invested the time in creating

3)

Personally I do think that the media is mostly about 'style over substance' because fundamentally what advertisers want to do is get their products sold. Establishing a good brand or style does this and it's often the case that consumers don't care that much about substance anyway.

Style over substance is when things like appearance and aesthetics are held to higher regard than actual content.

4)

Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' states we currently live in a society that's 'media-saturated.' This means that media images both dominate and also distort the way in which we view events and the world as a whole. This is referred to as hyperreality in that an alternate reality/realm is being created rather than actually being reported on.

5)

I do feel that my presence on social media is an accurate reflection of who I am, as I don't try and portray aspects of character that aren't real on it. Looking in hindsight, I don't believe I've added a picture for the sole reason of what it says about my character and rather it's just something I believe is worthy of being shared.

6)

I do believe that data mining has quite an intrusive nature when it comes to the data of users. The fact that your own information can get sold to try and sell you goods and services seems peculiar to me, but if it's stated in the terms and conditions of these social media sites and search engines, then they aren't legally doing anything wrong and in that case we shouldn't be using them if we aren't happy with it.