Today’s Digital Reproduction of the Individual

The digital image along with the Internet has opened up this world of reproduction and alteration to the middle class consumer which has intern changed how images are produced and how authentic they truly are. In today’s society with the Internet and technology continuing to expand the ideas behind the “original” and its “authenticity” are slowly depleting. According to Marxist theory, the term reproduction is used to describe the ways that cultural practices and their forms of expression reproduce the ideologies and interest of the ruling class. With Internet sites like My Space, Facebook, and even many dating sites the reproduction of our own image is numerous. These sites along with the constant reproduction of our own images, brings with it the loss of individual identity. I believe Marx’s theory applies today because, with these sites comes free expression. This free expression is actually not free at all, the majority or ruling class of these social sites are the ones calling the shots. It’s who has the cutest, sexiest, or most interesting pictures and who has the most friends or comments from people about their page. If you are not a part of this social network your considered old, boring or not cool. This type of behavior proves Marx’s theory correct.

Some people choose to separate themselves from this social sphere completely and blame the Internet or even the producer of the site for its unruly or pornographic content. But according to the authors of Practices of Looking an Introduction to Visual Society Cartwright and Sturken, it can be argued that technologies have some agency- that is, that they have important and influential effects on society and that they are also themselves the product of their particular societies and times and the ideologies that exist within them and within which they are used. So to blame someone else for how these new sites are being used is not accurate. Individuals often say that these sites may not be to blame but the mass reproduction of identities even false ones could become a huge problem. Cartwright and Sturken note that reproducibility itself is a deeply inherent characteristic of digital technology. Meaning trying to control the reproduction of images on such technology as the Internet is almost impossible.
With all of these identical images of people one might ask where is this person’s authenticity, meaning their genuineness or their legitimacy. Sociologist Walter Benjamin believes authenticity of the aura means the value of an image or art work derived from its uniqueness and its role in ritual This aura according to Benjamin cannot be reproduced. A person’s aura is their unique individuality and to copy and reproduce the ideologies presented by the majority is to lose your individuality or our value in Benjamin’s thoughts.
The Internet has provided many avenues where one could lose themselves to the digital majority, so to speak. With this lack in control over the reproducibility of images and the Internet we should ask ourselves if these technologies are useful or harmful to the idea of expressing ones individuality.