technoculture314-09

In a postmodern culture identity is not fixed process; instead it is continuously being shaped and reshaped because the more resources we have available to us, the more complex our identities become. Popular media and technology like television, film and the internet, act as resources that form cultural meanings and knowledge that helps us understand the world around us by allowing us to construct one’s identity. In an age where mass communication and mass consumption is prominent, theorist Jean Baudrillard uses the concepts of ‘hyperrealism’ and ‘simulation’ to argue how contemporary culture is one where the boundaries between the virtual or the ’unreal’ are becoming increasingly blurred with ‘reality’. In relation to Baudrillad’s concepts, we now experience ‘prepared’ realities; events that have been edited and reproduced to the extent we only experience things in simulation. Consider how social networking and matchmaking sites are examples of how people unintentionally misrepresent themselves when they attempt to create a profile of themselves that they feel ‘represents’ them, but in a selective way as they can pick and choose information that they feel is appropriate to reveal to ‘anonymous’ users. Or even consider the way ‘Vloggers’ on YouTube express or vent their emotions and opinions on any given topic or even to entertain a completely anonymous society of internet users across the globe. The development of new media or the prominence of emerging technologies such as the internet, has enabled more people to learn, debate or express their opinions in a more public and to a certain extent, an anonymous manner that reflects and forms their own identity.