We live in world where advertisements have been pushed down our throats since a very long time, everywhere you go you are bound to consume an ad and we pay multiple platforms to not show us these “ads” which is dystopian to begin with, because a normal human cannot exist without being told to be a constant consumer. But recently there has been a shameless shift, you are the annoying ad you hate seeing. Whether its people using other’s struggle for their “awareness” without ever helping them out in any real means or using the profit they gain to help the cause, which raises the question that is human suffering being fetishised for quick likes and reposts?. Yes, It does start a discourse As much as I would like to look at the brighter side the intent cannot be ignored and needs to be discussed, in some cases it might come from a good intention but more often than not it is merely an act of un- consensually recording people and adding a Mellow song in the background for an aesthetic “realistic” reel. Exploiting someone’s misery while you monetise your content and take a quick trip to Bali isn’t exactly awareness.
salons, restaurants and even airlines asking you “can we record a reel?”. Without even realising it you are being commodified. It does seem harmless at first, just a brand trying to gain engagement but on the broader scale your experiences, your critiques, your joy and even your suffering they’re all being packaged into content to generate capital. You are no longer just the target audience you are the product, you are the campaign. The commodification of identity isn’t a new topic of conversation theorists like Karl Marx,Guy Debord and David Harvey have argued that capitalism doesn’t sell products, it sells people and the biggest proof of that is the existence of influencers. Now im not here to critique the existence of influencers, this new tier in our global social hierarchy has more complications and sides than one would like to admit. But lets keep in mind that the original purpose of influencers was never to make them celebrities, it was for them to be a brand, to sell a product and a lifestyle.
This has bred a generation living with an Instagram audience in their heads curating themselves to filth, constantly performing for a make believe gaze. This “gaze” isn’t neutral it’s deeply shaped by marketable aesthetics ,algorithmic preference, and internalised capitalism. Drawing from Foucault’s theory of the panopticon, we can understand this gaze as a form of self-surveillance we become both the watcher and the watched, continuously modifying ourselves in anticipation of how we’ll be perceived whether what we do in our private time will be considered “corny” or “aesthetic”. Our bodies, our thoughts, even our joys are under this invisible, monetisable scrutiny. And the irony is the more you try to seem “authentic” the more you are rewarded,The very act of “being real” becomes a curated performance, a brand.
So where exactly does this leave us? What exactly is the conclusion? And my answer to that isn’t optimistic, the simple answer is no where. Your liberation is also a brand.
