- Spectatorship refers to the act of watching something being "the viewer", it is a more textured way of looking. The gaze refers to the relationship of looking in which the subject is caught up in dynamics of desire through trajectories of looking. In other words the gaze can be looked at as a personal connection, like a one on one feeling between you and whatever else or who you are looking at, whether it is or not.
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Relating Spectatorship & The Gaze to unrealistic expectations for youth via social media apps
- Spectatorship plays a big role in modernity of the 21st century, especially with phones being so commonly used. Each person who has a mobile device is the spectator to whatever or whoever is on their screen.
- The gaze is a property of the object and not the subject who looks, it is the process in which the object functions in order to make the subject look. In social media, the person who posts a picture and how they pose or portray themselves would be them being the object, who is trying to attract the subject to look at them.
- Many people rely on social media to validate their life or photos, so whoever the spectator is, would be a source of validation. Anyone could look at your posts or images and decide if you "deserve" a like, and that would matter to some people.
- Modern life is constructed through images (people portraying themselves as how they want to be seen by spectators) we are essentially living through our photos. Once the photo is up, the spectator can view it however they want. They could give a whole new meaning to a photo that was completely unrelated to what was going on. This is referred to as "The death of the Author".
- Young people spend their lives spectating other peoples lives through a screen in their hands. Teenagers find joy and entertainment in watching what others are doing and assuming that that person's life is just as they portray it on social media. There is the desire to look and feel connected to what we see. The post may not be intended to appeal to that individual, yet a spectator could feel a certain connection through the gaze they are caught up in with their photo.
- If a teen goes on their phone and the first thing that pops up is a skinny model on the beach wearing gucci sandals, then their expectations for their own lifestyle is now higher than it was before. They fall into a trans with the photo and begin to obsess over the certain person or picture. We see something online and believe everything about it. "If they can be that skinny, then I need to be too". "If they are wearing designer shoes, then I also need to be wearing them".
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