Who writes me into (digital) space?

I’m a bitch who LOVES to self-write on the internet. I arrange my silly little images and tweets to be jusssst the way I want them. Maybe because it makes me feel in control?

But also.. self-writing is fucking complicated.

Me getting ahead of myself with all my introductions (photo from Pinterest).

Wow, anonymous writer. That intro was FIRE, I’m intrigued. Please elaborate-

*clears throat** TO THE ARTICLE!!!

Sauter’s article, “Facebook as a tool for self-formation,” focuses on self-writing digital identities through social media. She says that people use social media as a confessional space to reassure themselves they are moral citizens. Through self-writing, folks form a fluid identity: one they can mold over time in relation to their community. Sauter sees Facebook as a public domain where people expose themselves, receive feedback, and learn to regulate their behaviours. Through these channels, people learn to either conform to social norms or publicly interrogate or disobey them.

Me checking Facebook to make sure I still have a conscience. (photo from Twitter).

I want to deconstruct Sauter’s claim that digital users make a choice when establishing themselves online: a choice to write to an “invisible audience, submitting themselves voluntarily to a panopticon form of constant scrutiny.” She says that, when we do this, we invite a certain level of surveillance to ourselves.

Let’s complicate this by considering the ways we are surveilled, framed or digitally scrutinized WITHOUT our consent. I wonder... how do these non-consensual framings impact our ability to fully sculpt our (digital) selves? While Sauter targets the way we write ourselves into digital spaces, she doesn’t consider the possibility of being written into the space by another.

HAHAH- I’d know something about that.

Of course, I love Instagram. And I understand that, with Instagram, comes the possibility of being examined under a microscope by some people… maybe some creeps.

(screengrab from The Office (U.S.), Netflix)

*Sigh* It’s the way 10 old men are in my DMs right now asking to be my sugar daddy… I love you, internet.

Sure, that’s fine. I know what I signed up for. But the important thing is that this scrutiny is on my terms. I have the autonomy to choose how public I make myself and I can remove myself at any time.

Now, the shitty side!

In high school, a boy would secretly videotape me in classes and hallways. The videos would be uploaded to social media the next day.

When people record you without consent, they strip you of a certain level of autonomy to self-write online. They are writing for you - trampling the foundations you're carefully laying down in order to come into yourself.

This reminds me of Russel’s intro to GLITCH FEMINISM, where she posits social media as an instrument for free play in coming into our own intersectional identities- identities which are usually suffocated by prejudiced generalizations I.R.L (17). In Sauter’s lingo, Russel uses self-writing to liberate herself in a world where her material body is predetermined - or written in part - by a colonial gaze. The key here is that, for Russel, digital avatars are a channel for reclaiming agency. We get to construct our unique images in a big, grey void; our identities are not predetermined by biased mouths which speak for us.

Russel’s experience adds a third dimension to Sauter’s argument, stressing the liberatory nature of self-writing as a vulnerable, personal practice that occurs on your own terms. So yeah, I love self-writing. In fact, I’m OBSESSED with self-writing. But JESus Christ, give people the chance to self-write themselves!

I’m a little terrified of how this will worsen with AI deep fakes. I’ve seen female celebrities brought to life in sexual scenarios, their voices programmed to say disgusting things. Now, for women on the internet, ‘social media’ and ‘autonomy’ don’t even exist in the same room. And you know what? Fuck that.

I want to be in charge of when and how I appear on social media. Maybe it’s time we, I don’t know, regulate this shit? Elon… please… I’m begging.

(photo template from Twitter)