Self-Surveillance In Foucault's Theories Of Power

In modern society, a phenomenon called the herd mentality is increasingly more prevalent on the likes of social media and acts as a subtle means of regulating a group of people through self-surveillance. Social media, particularly platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat, is a practice that has been moulded into the collective mindset through confessions to regulate society. Foucault’s theories of power and discipline lay provide a foundation for social media to create an imitation of a prison like self-surveillance and reflection on the unassuming public.

Foucault saw power and knowledge as a means in which to control a body through disciplinary power. In order to understand Foucault’s theories on power, one must understand Jeremy Bentham’s

The act of confession originated from the Christian Church during the medieval times, it was a means in which people would repent for their sins and wrong doing. He suggested that the confession creates the truth within individuals. The act consists of a person confessing their sins to a priest, however the one who is changed is the confessor themselves (Foucault 61-62, 116). The confessor willingly brings forward these sins instead of an authority figure giving blame and results in a form of self-surveillance. Just as the panopticon creates an atmosphere of perpetual stalking/surveillance, that very paranoia stimulates an obedient society (Lyon 59). The act of confessing to wrong doings has spread far beyond the reach of the church confessional and prisons into everyday lives. Foucault used the confessional to demonstrate how power is fractured. It doesn’t just start from the top but it also originates from within everyone. Individuals have the opportunity to dictate and create power when expressing themselves, as power is just set of relations on how we act and talk. In our current society, crimes are not the only thing that we confess; feelings, dreams and motivations are just a few (Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 198; Marwick 382). Our society has become conditioned into validation by our fellow peers while creating a false sense of power and

The many pairs of eyes on each individual at any given moment of the day is synonymous with the concept of the panopticon and it leads to self-surveillance of individuals (Marwick 379; Lyon 60). There is no better time in history to have a person’s daily life sprawled out for the rest of the world to see. Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, twitter: collectively these sites have turned society into stalkers by habit (Marwick 379). Primarily, twitter has become the “confessional” of the modern day as the site is thought to be the virtual version of an online diary. Tweets, short posts that are the main form of media on this site, often convey whatever is on a person’s minds within (what use to be 140 characters) 280 characters or less. Conversely, a site such as snapchat offers quick and highly stylised peeks into a person’s lifestyle. Quite literally speaking, with each snap (photo or video) lasting anywhere from 1- an infinite amount of seconds. However, once it has been opened, it will terminate shortly thereafter. Snapchat allows cameras to be inundated in a person’s life, for lens to provide “eyes” into another’s life. It reigns in a person’s behaviour to be showcased. At the very least, creates a snippet of a person’s life to fit an illusion of a perfectly exciting profile – a modified truth (Marwick 381). In both cases, what is posted is thought about