Kritik İletişim Çalışmaları Dergisi

Abstract

Panopticon, which means "Surveilling the Whole", refers to the surveillance society. Panopticon is an environment where the minority watches and controls the majority. Today, the surveillance society, called the "digital panopticon" by Chul Han, is a digital platform where everyone watches and is watched over each other at their own will. Exposure in the digital world has become a daily practice and normalized. Voluntarily exposed people in the digital surveillance society enjoy freedoms. The concepts of control and freedom are intertwined; freedoms are taken under control. In the name of freedom, the individual has become addicted to exposing himself and enjoying the surveillance of the crowd. This society of spectacle is also a society of pleasure. He is doomed to live a pleasure-oriented life, dependent on the show.
In a consumer society, a person who goes with the flow without stopping to think becomes part of a mass that consumes and thinks about the same things offered by the culture industry. In the consumer society, communication madness is an addiction. Because in the digital world, there is a constant need for approval. The individual feels that he belongs to this environment where he receives approval and develops a sense of belonging. Thus, users who move away from warm communication tend to communicate within the framework of applications created by digital technologies, which are cold communication methods. There is no room for negativity in these types of methods; in case of any negativity, the connection is cut off. In this respect, although technological communication methods are seen as freedom, lack of communication emerges as the need for approval. The need for approval is expressed through self-exposure. Technology use has now turned into an addiction to approval. As communication decreases, exposure and approval through self-display increases. In the echo chamber, this cycle continues and addiction increases. Along with exhibitionism, voyeurism has become a culture. Even though we do not see ourselves in this cycle, we are actually all in this cycle. Since we are slaves to voyeurism and being stared at, exhibitionism has become normal for us. Addiction to exhibition has become a culture.