“If you show your real face, you’ll lose 10 000 followers” – The Gaze of the Other and Transformations of Shame in Digitalized Relationships
Abstract
This essay examines the significance and transformation of shame in the context of digitalization, in particular, the psychosocial and psychological consequences of shifts in the boundaries between public and private manifest in the contemporary digital world. Moreover, it will examine the dynamic relationships of shame, humiliation and shamelessness as they develop in digital environments characterized by the dissolution of physical and communicative presence, as well as the, in turn, changing functions, ambivalences and affective pitfalls of self-presentation. On the basis of descriptions and commentaries by contemporary adolescents on the significance of social networks and on their own digital self-presentation, it will identify mechanisms for dealing with the imagined, projected or abnegated gaze of the other in the Net.
References
Altmeyer, M. (2016) Auf der Suche nach Resonanz: Wie sich das Seelenleben in der digitalen Moderne verändert. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Baym, N. K. (2010). Personal Connections in the Digital Age. New York: Polity.
Borst, M. & Wefing, H. (2014). ‘Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf. Geht alles gar nicht’. Die Zeit 6/2014, http://www.zeit.de/2014/06/vereinbarkeit-vaeter-kinder-karriere-luege.
Bröckling, U. (2015). The Subject in the Marketplace, the Subject as Marketplace. Presentation at Buenos Aires, 21.09.2015, unpublished manuscript.
Bröckling, U. (2016). The Entrepreneurial Self. Fabricating a New Type of Subject. London: Sage.
Broucek (1991). Shame and the Self. New York: Guilford.
Cooley, C. H. (1922). Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Ehrenberg, A. (2009). The Weariness of the Self. Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age. Quebec: McGill Queen’s University Press.
Elias, N. (2000). The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gergen, K. (2002). The Challenge of Absent Presence. In Katz, J. E. & Aakhus, M. (eds.), Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance (pp. 227-241). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, E. (1972) Relations in Public. London: Penguin.
Goldberg, C. (1991). Understanding Shame. Northvale: Aronson.
Greiner, U. (2015): Schamverlust: Vom Wandel der Gefühlskultur. Reinbek: Rowohlt
Grosser, E. (2014). Smartphone im Alltag. Vier Spotlights aus dem Leben junger Menschen, Zeitpolitisches Magazin, Dezember 2014, Jahrgang 11, Ausgabe 25, 4-7.
Hilgers, M. (2012). Scham. Gesichter eines Affekts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
JIM-Studie (2013). JIM-Studie 2013. Jugend, Information, (Multi-)Media. Basisuntersuchung zum Medienumgang 12- bis 19-Jähriger. Ed. Medienpädagogischen Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs): http://www.mpfs.de/fileadmin/JIM-pdf13/JIMStudie2013.pdf
JIM-Studie (2015). JIM-Studie 2015. Jugend, Information, (Multi-)Media. http://www.mpfs.de/fileadmin/JIM-pdf15/JIM_2015.pdf
Kammerl, R., Hirschhäuser, L., Rosenkranz, M., Schwinge, Ch.., Hein, S., Wartberg, L. & Petersen, K.-U. (2012). Exzessive Internetnutzung in Familien – Zusammenhänge zwischen der exzessiven Computer- und Internetnutzung Jugendlicher und dem (medien)erzieherischen Handeln in den Familien. PabstSciencePublishers. Lengerich.
King, V. (2013). Die Macht der Dringlichkeit. Kultureller Wandel von Zeitgestaltungen und psychischen Verarbeitungsmustern’. Swiss Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 164(7): 223-31.
King, V. (2014). ‘“… nur mal eben Mails gecheckt”. Veränderte Zeithorizonte, mediale Praxis und Beziehungsgestaltungen im Familien und Alltagsleben von Heranwachsenden’, merz 2/2014, 58. Jg. (Medien und Erziehung), Zeitschrift für Medienpädagogik, Schwerpunkt: Medien und Zeit, http://www.merz-zeitschrift.de/?MAIN_ID=1.
King, V., Lindner, D., Schreiber, J., Busch, K., Uhlendorf, N., Beerbom, Ch., Salfeld-Nebgen, B., Gerisch, B. & Rosa, H. (2014). Optimierte Lebensführung – wie und warum sich Individuen den Druck zur Selbstverbesserung zu eigen machen. In Kluge, S., Lohmann, I. & Steffens, G., Jahrbuch für Pädagogik 2014: Menschenverbesserung – Transhumanismus (pp. 283-299). Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang Edition.
Kohut, H. (1971). The Analysis of the Self. New York: International University Press.
Lacan, J. (1948). Das Spiegelstadium als Bildner der Ichfunktion, wie sie uns in der psychoanalytischen Erfahrung erscheint. In Lacan, J., Schriften I (pp. 61–70). Weinheim/Berlin: Quadriga 1986.
Lewis, M. (1992). Shame. The Exposed Self. New York: Free Press.
Mead, G. H. (1934/1973). Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Misoch, S. (2007). Die eigene Homepage als Medium adoleszenter Identitätsarbeit. In Hoffmann, D., Mikos, L., & Winter, R. (eds.), Mediennutzung, Identität und Identifikationen: Die Sozialisationsrelevanz der Medien im Selbstfindungsprozess von Jugendlichen (pp. 163-182). Weinheim/Munich: Juventa.
Neckel, S. (1991). Status und Scham. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus
Opitz, F. (2012). SPEED. Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit. Munich: Goldmann.
Piers, G. & Singer, M. B. (1953). Shame and Guilt. New York: Norton.
Sartre, J.-P. (1943). L‘ être et le néant. Saint-Amand: Gallimard.
Scheff, T. J. (2000). Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory. Sociological Theory, 18: 84–99. doi:10.1111/0735-2751.00089
Schreiber, J., Uhlendorf, N., Lindner, D., Gerisch, B., King, V. & Rosa, H. (2015): Optimierung zwischen Zwang und Zustimmung. Institutionelle Anforderungen und psychische Bewältigung im Berufsleben. Psychosozial. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie und Kulturanalyse. Schwerpunktheft ‚Perfektionierung und Destruktivität‘; ed. by V. King & B. Gerisch, H. 3/2015, 27-42.
Seidler, G. H. (2000). In Others‘ Eyes. An Analysis of Shame. Foreword by Léon Wurmser. Preface by Otto F. Kernberg. Madison, Conn.: International Universities Press.
Seidler, G. H. (2014). Scham. In Handbuch psychoanalytischer Grundbegriffe (pp. 827-830). Foreword by Wolfgang Mertens, 4. Überarbeitet und erweiterte Auflage, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer
Spitzer, M. (2012). Digitale Demenz. Wie wir uns und unsere Kinder um den Verstand bringen. Munich: Droemer.
Steiner, J. (1985). Turning a Blind Eye. The Cover up for Oedipus. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 12: 161-172.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together. New York: Basic Books.
Voderer, P., Kroemer, N. & Schneider, F. (2016). Permanently Online – Permanently Connected: Explorations into University Students’ Use of Social Media and Mobile Smart Devices. Computers in Human Behavior, 63: 694-703, DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.085
Winnicott, D. (1965). The Maturational Processes and the Faciliating Environment. Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development. New York: International Universities Press.
Wouters, C. (1999) Informalisierung. Norbert Elias’ Zivilisationstheorie und Zivilisationsprozesse im 20. Jahrhundert. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Copyright
Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
Licensing
The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA). It is allowed to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided, it is indicated if changes were made and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original.
Users are required to provide full bibliographic description of the original publication (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages), as well as its DOI code. In electronic publishing, users are also required to link the content with both the original article published in CM: Communication and Media and the licence used.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Self-archiving policy
Authors are permitted to deposit author’s publisher's version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), at any time after publication.
Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and links must be made to the article's DOI and the license.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and the Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.