Digital Exhibitionism: The Age of Exposure

• Main Author: Ana María Munar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2010-09-01
• Series: Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
• Subjects: Social media; cultural change; online communities; social control
• Online Access: https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/1935

Web 2.0 has expanded the possibilities of digital creative production by individuals and enabled the digitalisation of private life experiences. This study analyses how social media contributes to the making of personal biographies and discusses the shift towards a culture of digital exposure. This study uses netnography and a constructive approach to examine online communities and social networks. The findings illustrate that these new technological platforms are mediating in the construction of late modern biographies, which are expanding the complexity of today’s socio-technical systems. The paper discusses the power of these technologies as agents of socio-cultural change and suggests that, besides providing individual realisation and mediated pleasure, these technologies encourage exhibitionistic and voyeuristic behaviour, elude reflexivity, and display authoritative tendencies and new possibilities for social control.