The discussion of Althusser's ideologies had me flummoxed. In CMC we always discuss ideologies, but I didn't really realize how ideology shapes quite literally everything we do in society and culture. Kind of depressing, right? To me ideologies somehow take away the conscious choice or decision to be portrayed as some way, because we are either following the ideological expectation of our persona, or we are defining ourselves by way of the opposite of the ideological expectation, which in a way is an ideology as well. It makes the idea of a rebel or rebelling against the "system" seem very diminished. The quote "those who are in ideology believe themselves by definition outside ideology," is most relevant to the concept of rebelling against societal norms, because we are a) reaffirming the ideologies by defining the ideologies as something to rebel against, and b) creating a new sense of ideology surrounding the subculture of rebellious behavior.
One source of perpetuating ideology that particularly stuck out to me was Instagram. On Instagram we are able to construct the "perfect" scenarios in which we comply with societal ideologies and portray what is considered to be the ideal. I was reminded of an article I read recently where an "Instagram famous" teenage girl tried to rebel against the falsities that Instagram portrays as reality through carefully posed selfless and filters. The girl originally gained followers for her glamorous posts about clean eating, "fitspiration" bikini posts, and aesthetically-pleasing fashion shots. Now, a couple years after the girl became "famous," she has realized the shallowness and fake nature behind her Instagram account, so she has gone through all of her posts and reedited the captions to convey the actual reality of the photos. In many she states that she would spend hours doing her hair and makeup, while wearing clothes she was getting paid sponsorships to wear, and taking 200+ pictures just for the perfect one to post; she also highlights the sexualization of her youth, at fifteen years old, and the unhealthiness she promoted with calorie-counting habits. I will include the link to her article below.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/a-teen-instagram-star-is-editing-her-photo-captions-to-show
I totally agree with you that Instagram perpetuates certain unrealistic societal traits. The typical Instagrammer almost exclusively depicts the positive aspects of their life while completely ignoring the struggles of life. Furthermore, as we get deeper into the Instagram age, the maturing younger cultural eras (I love my new term!) perceive life as they see it depicted on social media. When browsing Instagram (and every other social media platform for that matter), you will almost never see realistic portrayals of life struggles; you may see a meme or comical reference, but there will typically be an attempt to make light of the situation.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting social experiences I have had regarding social media reality was when I was discussing the idea of college with my 18 year old autistic cousin. After he told me about how much he wanted to go to college, his mother explained that he has no real concept of what college is; he only knows what he sees on social media. When I asked my cousin what college meant to him, he said that college is the time in your life when you go to the beach and hang out with friends, go to football games, and have a messy room. He had no real grasp of the academic aspect of college because it is rarely portrayed on social media. His understanding of college is essentially the newsfeed that stems from stereotypical #College posts.
When I came to college, I thought I knew exactly what it would be like because of everything I had seen on social media and in movies. The ideologies promoted via these mediums tended to portray college in manner that is, quite simply, ridiculous. What I find disturbing is how many of my peers still seek to achieve this unrealistic glammified existing; those who choose to “Party with Gatsby.”
But really, think about the whole idea of those events, “Partying with Gatsby.” These are the events that cater exclusively to Rollins wealthiest students in order to portray their events as for “the elite.” Furthermore, the promotion of the “Baller Lifestyle” ideology encourages many of these individuals to flaunt their wealth and spend haphazardly on overpriced bottle service delivered by half-naked women; and nobody seems to realize how sleezy it all is.