Week 8

Looking Glass Self/Specular Economy

The theory that I think well embodies the topic of specular economy is that of the ‘looking glass self.’This psychological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley means the self-image an individual forms by imagining what others think of his or her behavior and appearance.

This directly ties in with the Specular world, in which we’re conscious of the public version of ourselves and how others look at us. We now live in a world that revolves around online culture, so celebrities need to adapt. What we see from this are different avenues for attention, we find ourselves looking at a plethora  of controversy from celebrities to help boost their fame, just look at this argument between 4 of the world biggest DJ’s taken place on twitter of all places.  

 

Look at Tiger Woods, he had constructed the perfect image of himself, a professional sportsman, consummate family man and humanitarian with his charity works. However, due to paparazzi companies like TMZ and RadarOnline, once there was a sniff of his real image they were able to uncover evidence and destroy his reputation via electronic media in a matter of days. (Marshall P 2008, p500)  

“There is now an expectation of social interaction through social media that dwarfs the fan letter interactions of old and pushes celebrity culture into a constant and accelerated game of recursive revelation of the private and the intimate.” (Marshall P 2008, p498)   

References

Marshall, P.D 2008, The Specular Economy, Society. Vol. 47