The Modern Observer - By Mark Carbajal

Image 1: Facebook meme (MemeCenter, 2013)

The cyber-flâneur's exploration of virtual spaces is achieved through their natural propensity for movement; they wander anonymously within the boundaries of virtual space, developing a virtual identity while connected (Barnes, 1997). During last weeks lecture, the topic was based on Space and Identity: Genre and Transformation. Further, depth into the self and community identity. Some social media users explore through the virtual spaces using the social media giant, Facebook. The modern cyber flâneurs intent on surfing aimlessly on multiple pages created by viral users and admiring their creativity. This is because, online spaces are also public spaces (LearnJCU, 2017).

Based on this week's blog topic, week 4 to be exact, I have chosen flâneur's in my online social network. A modern explorer is a cyber-flâneur, which I will reflect on my friends in my social network. A cyber-flâneur not merely participate but explores or observes anything that goes on in Facebook. These could be following pages, certain vines, life goals, or in recent viral creativity, memes. Though it could also further lead into exploring the virtual spaces of personal life's, such as following other people's activity, where they have been on holiday, their lifestyle and weekend activities.

In order to receive a basic understanding of a cyber-flâneur, here is a link to a video by a YouTube user Peter Ansell of what is an ordinary flâneur, Paris: A Flâneur's Guide, then ask yourself if you have friends on Facebook or even yourself, whom scrolls through their newsfeed on Facebook. Without the intent of achieving any true goals but wanders the virtual space, not knowing where you will be in that space after a period of time. This is relatable to another blog source stating, Morozov is an educated man, and with nuance and skill, he resurrects the mid-19th-century archetype of the peripatetic Parisian flâneur, held up in order to beat down the homogenizing influences of Facebook and frictionless digital sharing (Hendel, 2012) on www.theatlantic.com. This means that the peripatetic Parisian flâneur that ventures on travelling and wandering from one place to another is back, but scrolling and venturing through the virtual world. Thus creating a surveiller, that you and I will not know about, but they are there observing what we post in our social media accounts.

Cyberspace is akin to the Panopticon prison not only in the way that the cyber-flaneur is synonymous with the surveiller, but also in the way that the cyber-flaneur is synonymous with the Panopticon inhabitants (Barnes, 1997). Therefore the self and community identity of a cyber-flâneur as a surveiller, relates to my previous blog of 'Power' in relation to the (re)inventing of the Panopticon prison, through social media. Facebook and any other social media are merely a modern Panopticon prison, where the cyber-flâneur is our surveiller or the security guard. We do not know whom is watching in the guard tower, But we will feel their presence when they like or share our post on social media.

Reference

Barnes, G. (1997). Passages of the Cyber-Flaneur. Retrieved from 
http://www.raynbird.com/essays/Passage_Flaneur.html

Hendel, J. (2012). The Life of the Cyberflâneur. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/the-life-of-the-cyberfl-neur/252687/

LearnJCU. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, lecture 3: Space and Identity: Genre and Transformation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_2846467_1&course_id=_84764_1

MemeCenter (2013). Facebook meme. [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.memecenter.com/fun/695103/facebook