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Utopia and Facebook : unsettling the perception of an ideal arrangement

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/defaults/dz010r507

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  • Thomas More’s text, Utopia, introduces the word “utopia” in conjunction with an ideal society, prodding readers to think of “utopia” as synonymous with “ideal.” Indeed, Utopia is structured as an egalitarian and communal place, rendering it highly ideal to those wishing for equality in their own worlds. However, More overturns those central concepts of equality and communal existence through the course of the narrative, suggesting that one’s ideal world does not, and cannot exist, but operates only in fiction. A utopia, then, is an imagined ideal world that rescinds its own ideals and therefore can never be manifest. Similarly, many utopias are being imagined by people in contemporary society, but instead of using ink and paper to form those worlds, they use the internet. A plethora of self-created worlds exist in internet forums, particularly in the social networking site (SNS) called Facebook. Facebook allows users to form their own ideal worlds via profiles, privacy settings, and open communication with friends. However, while Facebook claims to operate on these ideals of privacy and community, it overturns those ideals in its very operation, proving it to be non-ideal. Just like Utopia, Facebook initially appears to fit the conception of an ideal, communal society, but upon further exploration, Facebook is shown to exploit privacy and disconnect people more than it connects them; therefore, because Facebook overturns the ideals it was founded on, Facebook may be said to be a utopia, which by definition can never exist.
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file details Cassandra_RiderEssay_3_Final_Draft.pdf 2017-07-21 Público Descargar