SELF VS. SELFIE: CONSTRUCTION OF A PERFECT REALITY

When in 1981, Baudrillard claimed that reality no longer emitted signs which guarantee its existence, but signs now construct the real as simulations, he might have been talking of the modern day trend of constructing a self (or uploading a selfie!) through social media. The “self” that always puts on a performance, however passively, when it enters the presence of others (Goffman) is now openly without any persuasion being put up on display by the common man. Through participation in the social media, the modern individual is creating an image of herself that is very specific, selective and “perfect”. Yet signs have their own way of slipping through, eluding a fixed meaning the moment they come under the “gaze”. This paper seeks to explore the way a self is projected for public consumption from within the confines of a private life with its intimacy, through the phenomenon of “selfie”, with special reference to the struggle for change in image of one time Disney star, “Hannah Montana” Miley Cyrus