Kenna - 7 and 8



After reading chapter 7, I really wanted to touch on Davis’s reference to avatars. I believe that Bitmojis are a perfect example of our desire to portray ourselves ideally in the digital world. I have so many friends who will make their Bitmoji skinnier, taller, or more desirable. Furthermore, Bitmoji technology has evolved so much in the past few years that users can simply snap a photo of themselves and utilize technology to derive a Bitmoji. There are emotionally charged stickers you can use to portray your emotions visually instead of linguistically. There is a version of each of us that literally lives inside the message apps on our phones.




Davis’s portions on conspiracy theories also really hit close to home for me. I have always been interested in conspiracies, not so much as a believer but as a fascinated third party observer. My best friend is an avid conspiracy theorist and I really relate specifically to the DIA conspiracies, so I devoured the portions on paranoia. This made me think of a Netflix documentary I recently watched, called “Hot Girls Wanted”. The documentary follows a handful of girls in ameature porn and details their day to day lives. One of the biggest takeaways at the end is, of course, that these young girls will never be able to escape what is now catalogued on the internet. The two girls who leave the industry and the two who stay are all essentially, in the same boat as they can’t escape video footage that is constantly being consumed. The less obvious takeaway, however, is that anyone who watches these videos is also simultaneously being tracked. The contrast between the stark nakedness of the women and the sneakier behavior of the viewer is, in a way, moot, because there is a physical record of everything any of us do online. It raises the question, is physical exposure truly worse than technological exposure?

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