Student Work

Section A: Readings

Site A - Lana Del Rey: The Most Breakfast At Tiffany’s has to offer 2012

The pop industry has changed irreversibly since the days of jazz and swing, since the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and the ‘crazy Forties’ of elegance and style. Women no longer have the persona or role model of a warm Audrey Hepburn, sitting classy in her little black dress drinking tea, and girls my age are growing up with glitter on their hands from fake tan and glossy lipstick to draw on newer, nicer faces. But why does everyone go to this trouble, then, if it is now “cool” to have an identity as non-feminine as possible?

Did the feminists win? Role models are now aggressive looking females with orange skin and white teeth. Girl world has turned into a sort of annoying satsuma in which it is not only in fashion to dress like a man but also appropriate to act like one too. It is in fashion to slate celebrities such as Zooey Deschanel for being too “twee” because she has her own sense of style and appearance with pale skin and funny dresses. Del Rey for being too “anti-climax” to sing and looks too weird, with the persona of an old Hollywood star. Originality it seems is dead and everyone must now look like The Only Way is Essex characters. When I was growing up, my ideal self was a gifted writer.

Why on earth is it necessary to swap all the elegance and grace women learned from classic movies such as ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ in lieu for trash programming with language such as reem polluting the atmosphere? British popular culture is dying. As a child I remember being a tomboy for a few months. I swapped reading books, skipping with my friends in the playground and ballet classes for football and boyish looking clothes. Needless to say, this phase did not last long – not with my hand-eye co-ordination, anyway. Now I feel as though I am back in that habitat, back in a world of cultured Ugg boots and hair that sits on top of people’s heads, with the only girly charm being a face full of make-up. Nowadays, the sociolect of sub-groups is more likely to be a guy calling a woman “hot” if she has fake tanned legs rather than Hepburn being courted, 1950′s style, in the rain.

My question is, where have all the women gone? Women who felt self-esteem from their elegance and warmth in their social environment are now a dying race. They loved their bodies enough to dress them in soft, graceful fashions. We now have role models such as Amy from TOWIE littering the world. My memories of staying away from Barbie’s because they were too scarily perfect are now back, back in the generation of artificial lighting and plastic surgery and fake teeth, where nothing is real. So that is why I look at new feminine role models such as Lana Del Rey in popular culture, and trust that there is hope for a girl who perhaps does not see the necessity to dress in the latest trends of TOWIE and Made in Chelsea. These women, who have passes for the gym and crazily pumped up lips, will never influence my perception of self-concept.

(532 words)


Section A: Readings
Site B - 

Facebook; a way to "stay connected" or a way become a "socially disruptive" narcissist?

With over 500,000,000 active Facebook users spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook and over 50 percent of members logging in daily, Facebook is becoming a part of everyday life. Statistics have revealed that 57% of people talk to people more online then they do in real life, so is the cultural practice of Facebook really a way to "stay connected" or is it just leading to "socially disruptive", narcissistic and aggressive behaviour. 

Communication comes in many forms, many of which can be mis-communicated or misinterpreted by the receiver due to variations in register, leading to many problems. In today’s culture, non-verbal communication such as text’s, e-mails, Facebook messages and even letters, can be lost along the way leading to disputes which could easily be resolved by picking up the phone and verbally contacting the person. The use of Facebook has become a more and more popular phenomenon and could even be described as a cultural practice, as people who have it use it on a day-to-day basis, some even ritually use it as soon as they wake up. A report released by Cambridge University who studied questionnaires from 1,000 families each in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and China found that technology, including Facebook, could both help and hinder friendships and family relationships. Whilst Facebook can help you keep in contact with friends, extended family or family members who do not live close by it can also help to distance you from close friends and immediate family if over used.

"Narcissism" generally suggests egoism, vanity, self-conceit or simple selfishness and when applied to a social group can denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others. In psychology narcissism can describe both ‘normal’ self-love or an unhealthy self-absorption due to a disturbance in the sense of self. Group participation in ritualistic activities such as Facebook may be an everyday part of youth culture today but does it lead to faceless socialisation and an unrealistic view of subjectivity.

Researchers have found a direct link between "socially disruptive" narcissistic behaviour and the number of Facebook friends a person has. Two elements of this behaviour have been identified; grandiose exhibitionism (GE) and entitlement/exploitativeness (EE). GE includes ''self-absorption, vanity, superiority, and exhibitionistic tendencies", an example of this is a status which I found on my newsfeed;

“hahaha aw, don't half feel sorry for some girls.. carry on barking at me love cos you'll be getting put down soon you flea infested mut!”

This shows a sense of superiority and exhibitionism intended to get attention or create drama, it is also the type of entry on Facebook revealing non-verbal leakage that suggests that this individual has low self-esteem. (EE) has "a sense of deserving respect and a willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others". Both of these types of behaviour can be frequently seen on my own newsfeed and I’m sure many other Facebook pages. Ultimately it could also be described as a form of prejudice, something that is becoming more and more prevalent on not only Facebook but also other forms of social network such as Twitter.

A lot of people, including myself, rely on Facebook in order to contact family and friends, and there have been numerous occasions I have become annoyed when people do not respond to my messages, without it crossing my mind that they may not have received or read it. A lot of my family, from different generations have Facebook, and while I sometimes feel I can't post things on there for fear my parents will find out, it also allows me to share news with members of my family who I would have no contact with otherwise.

I have also noticed on my newsfeed that some of my "friends" use Facebook as a way to communicate non verbally with other people, including their family, who are in the same house or even the same room via different computers, laptops and even mobile phones, people who they could easily go and talk to face to face but instead they post it on Facebook for everyone to see. This would be a good example of GE behaviour. 

Facebook is a way for people to create an online persona, so although people may use it to keep in contact with their family they may also use it to create their ideal self so others could be seeing a completely different and inaccurate side to this person than they would in reality. This excessive use of Facebook can lead to a false sense of accompaniment that results in people posting every aspect of their life and all their problems on Facebook rather than talking to friends and family. Frequently I have seen these types of status updates on my own Facebook timeline and wondered why people would post them. Facebook can also have a negative impact on a person's mood. Generally people only put the positive aspects of their life on display, this may make other people reading it to become unsatisfied with their own lives and desire this seemingly perfect one presented by other Facebook users.

Clearly an over reliance upon a good Facebook status, or using it as a ritualistic social practice, may lead to an unrealistic sense of an individuals subjectivity. Without even meaning to premeditatedly individuals may develop ‘socially disruptive’ behaviour or abusive acts of prejudice that have little or no relation to their true self. ‘Staying connected’ with individuals whom you already have a pre-existing verbal and non-verbal relationship with is more likely to sustain healthy correspondence, even if there may be times when issues of register might confuse. A lack of face-to-face contact in communication systems could therefore be said to lead to considerable misinterpretation and could encourage negative behavioral responses.