Final draft

Since the invention of the Network , society has been the witness of multiples changes on human behaviour . These changes are real but most importantly , represent the end and the beginning of a new era . Modern society is heading towards to a new social structure where traditional social interactions are about to be extinguished , and new ways of socialisation more conventional established.

Firstly , this essay will explore and research Sigmund Freud's studies on the human psyche and it's three different aspects (Id, Ego and Super-Ego) as a starting point on the relation between society and technology . Once the theory has been understood, this essay will also look at Identity ,according to the sociologist Sherry Turkle and her studies on human behaviour in “Alone Together” presented in her book . In order to establish a comparison , the essay will analyse the well know british tv show “ BlackMirror”, a critique of a modern society where developing technology is influencing and affecting the way humans interact with each other . This essay will explain how Freud's human psyche theory can be apply on modern society and compare it with Sherry Turkle's identity theory . This analysis is aiming to show readers through comparison of facts and theories, that the dystopia shown on the example episode is not more than an obvious similarity between fiction and the modern society that we are heading towards to. A critique on the influence of technology advances on modern society and the impact this cause on human behaviour.

Human Psyche – The Id, Ego and Super-Ego According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis studies, human behaviour is formed by thoughs and actions are the consequence of our psyche. Before explain it in depth, it would be wise to have an understanding of how human mind works and why we behave as we do from a scientific point of view , in order to understand humans behaviour and human identity in modern society.

This paragraph will explore and identify the structure of the human psyche and the social dimension of identity creation . A better understanding of these concepts will ensure a more accurate comprehension of the role of human psyche in social behaviour on both individual and social level. As Freud's explains on his book “ The Ego and the Id “ , the human psyche can be divided into three different elements ; The Id, Ego and superEgo. In order to understand human behaviour , it will be necessary an approach to each of them.

The Id is the part of the psyche that is mainly formed by human instincts, as animals do. On the contrary of the rest, Id is the only part of the psyche that it is present at birth and it's in charge of answer to all types of impulses such as desires or needs. People can think of the Id as the capricious baby inside each individual, that needs to be calmed and attend his demands. According to Freud, the Id is entirely unconscious and is the “source of all psychic energy”, making it the main ingredient of personality. The Id follows the principle of pleasure and contains the libido, which is the main source of instinctual force that respond to reality demands. The pleasure principle droved the id to find instant gratification of whatever he desires, needs or want at the moment. Sometimes, these desires can't be satisfy instantly which as a consequence, tension is created and it has to be relieve. As a remedy the Id uses Primary Process , a defence mechanism to relieve the tension. The Id creates a mental image of the desired object to substitute the needs . Through this process, the tension is relived and anxiety level get steady . Daydreaming and masturbation might be good

examples of Primary Processes.

Secondly, the intermediary part of the psyche also known as the Ego. Its main function is to ensure that all instincts manifestation demanded by Id are expressed in an acceptable way to the real world.

The ego helps to process Id desires to reality ,working as a moderator and is in charge of filtering Id's needs. In order to understand the role of the Ego, Freud divided the human mind into three levels of conciousness. Freud believed that human behaviour and personality is formed between these 3 mind states. The first part of conciousness is the concious mind, including everything people are aware of, the aspect of the mind that can think and reason. In the unconscious mind ,there are two different types. The preconscious (Pcs) representing ordinary memory . People are not 100% aware of it although it can be accessed and move them to the concious part at anytime. The last type of conciousness, the unconscious mind ( Ucs). In comparison with Pcs, it's impossible to access it.

A example of unconscious mind would be night dreaming. Freud believes that the unconscious is mainly formed by disagreeable memories such as feeling of pains,repressions, anxiety,etc. Freud also discussed that the Ucs is constantlly influencing the individual behaviour and personality, even if is never aware of these influences. Therefore, the Ego has the duty of distinguishing fantasy from reality. It filters the thoughts and makes sense to world, representing common sense and reason.

Regardless, it has the most important role of all of them, as it has to serve the Id and the superEgo, and at the same time , interact with the external world.

The Super – Ego is the third part of the human psyche . It reflects the cultural rules, moral and ethics values mainly taught by parents as influence or/and guidance. Super ego aims for perfection .

It represent the organized part of personality structure. It critiques and prohibits fantasies, feelings and actions that are no moral or ethic. Is in constant contradiction with the Id, because it has to act in socially acceptable manner , therefore and as mention before, the Ego often has to mediate between the two.

Knowing this , we can understand the important role of the Ego when it comes to canalize a response, driven by the Id and confined by the Super-Ego. Sometimes the Ego struggle trying to satisfy both of them ,which obviously not always is possible . This can cause anxiety , in different ways ( Moral anxiety regarding the Super-Ego, neurotic anxiety ,regarding the Id and realistic anxiety,regarding the external world ) To fight these anxieties, The ego has elaborate defense mechanisms, trying to solve these anxiety threats which ,it can become repressions if not treat at time. Sublimation is the defence mechanism ,where socially unacceptable impulses or desires are consciously transformed into socially acceptable behaviour or actions . Freud defined sublimations as “the process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation” .He believed that sublimation is a sign of maturity , not just as an individual but in a social aspect.

Human Psyche on Modern Society The next text presents an analysis and a study on specifics social media platforms, worldwide known as Facebook, ChatRoulette and Linked In . This essay will guide the reader comparing Freud's human psyche theory and how is commonly used on different social media .

The “like” bottom from Facebook ( or “liking” ,an slang word of our Modern Society) it resembles to one of the Ego's needs. The Ego's role as Freud defends, is to transform Id desires into socially acceptable outcomes. The Ego's role is the most important as it has to act between the the Superego, the Id and the External World. Freud's explained that the Id is formed by libido, containing the desire of sexual activity. Unfortunately, these desires are not acceptable in the external world, causing the Ego to process before express it. These desires are then transformed into a more socially acceptable way through Ego's defence mechanism mentioned on Freud's theory

before , Sublimation. The sublimation then ,provoke this socially acceptable substitutions such as daydreaming, masturbation or in this case, making oneself attractive to other people. In modern society people has spread the instinctive sexual desire towards something much bigger as a matter of fact, a worldwide desire of being attractive or accepted by masses. Facebook has proved to take the theory into practice through its online domain, using the aspects of the Ego to maintain relationships.

At the same time , another of the aspect of the human psyche ( Id) can be distinguished and also pretty visible and present in social media. In the previous examples, Facebook was acting as the Ego , where your own identity has a role to play , and people care about the image they provide to others . However, there are websites and other types of social media such as ChatRoulette for instance where identity can be anonymous. Consequently, without an identity to project or hide behind, the Id can become an insatiable storm seeking for constant pleasure or desires to satisfy, without having to respond to the Super-Ego, Ego or the external world. Another example, is Tinder or Grindr. Online sites with the only purpose is to flirt, meet or date other participants. On these platforms, there is a constant liberation of libido, leaving once again the Id and its sexual instinct express itself without any censorship. Consequently this liberation of libido increase the level of dopamine, which is the main reason for addiction. As a result, the more people use social media, the more addicted people can get.

Last but not least the Super- Ego also manifests itself on the virtual world, as much as the rest of the psyche types has been represented on others platforms. Online sites such as “Linked In” or “Behance” are network platforms where there is a special consideration regarding accomplishments and professionalism. As result, these sites can resemble the Super-Ego aspect of the human psyche ,where a more adult identity of ourselves can take form according to the material users are asked to display. For instance ; professional qualifications, artwork and most importantly, connections and interactions with others that are expected to share a professional values with each other . Sigmund Freud would agree that the Super-Ego can be satisfied when achievements and accomplishments meet satisfaction, in the same way than parents give approval to their children regarding academic grades or scores. To summarise the Super-Ego as our personal parental guide , is expecting us to be successful in our lives.

Identity – A critique on modern human behaviour Canadian professor Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a visionary of the “future world”.

His studies acknowledge the term “Global village” ( McLuhan described how the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology and the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time, Wikipedia ), but most importantly, for predicting the World Wide Web .“ We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us “ cited by Marshall's colleague M.Culkin published in 'The Saturday Review' in 1967, talking about McLuhan's idea. It described a common problem that modern society is facing these days , and as a matter of fact, this essay will explain our current situation and how technology is “shaping” a more antisocial, narcissist and lonely society.

In this Network Era post-Pc , people can argue that the online life has brought to life many improvements and positive things ; friendship , family boundaries , education, etc .However , on social media , such as Facebook and Twitter people are compressed to their profiles , in which people think that they are presenting ourselves, but the profile ends up as somebody else, often the illusion of who we want to be. Nowadays society are more concern about “virtual identity” than anything else. Often this behaviour becomes excessive to a point where real identity lacks of any real socialisation and therefore, making it difficult to interact on the real world . People use social

media to feel “ themselves” . Online Profiles expand distinct personalities, sometimes even people find them as a “ better selves” . The more people invest time on them , the more they want to take credit from. According to Pool, society has reach a point where people have to decide how to deal with online identity . Different online platforms require different profiles , which lead to a multiple identity and the separation of the persona as Sherry Turkle mentioned on 'Together Alone' “we have moved from multitasking to multi-lifing”. Turkle talks about online identity. On 'Alone Together' describes that an avatar or profile becomes“ a statement not only about who you are but who you want to be”. Trying to disclose yourself to someone that doesn't know who you are can bring an obsession. As consequence when a person has to create an own identity , they are creating an ideal person . People do not want others to see the bad aspects of them. Turkle suggest that “one speaks about narcissism not to indicate people who love themselves, but a personality so fragile that it needs constant support […] So, the narcissistic self gets on with others by dealing only with their made-to-measure representations “. In other words, she suggest that technology alone is not responsible for the new method of relating to our feeling or emotions and to others but it make it much easier . On the other hand, some people as the Queen Beatrix blames technology for our latest behaviour , as it it suggested on the following speech “ During these times of globalisation, whereas the distances are significantly smaller and velocity have gone up. Technical progress have made man more independent and therefore , individualistic. The modern man nowadays doesn't show too much interest in his fellow humans. The technology era is slowly making humans mainly concern about themselves than in anything else. Our society is becoming more and more individualistic. Personal freedom has become unrelated to solidarity with the community. But without a certain sense of 'togetherness' our existence is becoming empty “ These were the words spoken by Queen Beatrix , showing an afraid but real vision of modern society suggesting an alarming social behaviour change caused by a fast technological development .

Analysis of NoseDive BlackMirror's Dystopia Blackmirror tv show is considered as 'visionary' of society as some people may argue , on how it projects a non distant future dystopia . Some people agree that the society represented in the show is an accurate example on how humanity is being affected by technology and what direction is moving towards, from a social point of view. Undoubtedly there is a huge similarity between our modern society and “Nosedive” world's episode. To start with , I separate this episode into two parts ( scene 1 and scene 2). Each scene has a main topic of point of interest and has been divided for a better analyse.

First Scene The first part of the episode show a reality where the image , or more suitable , the “identity” is the most important thing in life . A place where people are together but alone at the same time . The communication between individuals are very limited if not anything at all. And when it happens, tends to be short and interestless or what is called “small talks” . Is a world where every public and social interaction is rated by “popularity ranks” in a scale from 1 to 5, where you get your scored by other people who view your profile and rate you ( Facebook). People wears a very unique contact lens , that makes the wearer see an identification of people's name and ratings next to it , in a world where the “popularity ranks” is the whole. It shows a dark future where people is in need of instant gratification or online approval/acceptance from other people. Often , those people that rates are not even close to them, but it matters. ( Turkle instant validation reference). Basically ,the first scene shows Lacie's world . How well and important is to take careful of your identity, pushing hard and making effort to be attracted by others, and having a goal ( The Pelican Cove house) ,providing a good reason to push even harder as a 4.5 is required. Even the house recreates an hologram with a handsome man helpind on the mareting ( Primary Process , create a image in a more social

acceptable way reference )

Second Scene The second part of the episode is a nonstop of disappointments for Lacey. It shows the degradation of Lacey's identity. A series of unfortunate events keep happening until the very end of the episode.

Perhaps the most relevant moment of the episode is when Lacie met Susan, an ex 4.6 citizen that became an 1.3 after a series of events (similar events that happened to Lacie). This character could be seen as a representation of the Id once she started to say whatever she thinks and people does not like because is “ not acceptable correct “ people rated her down ( The id needs the validation of the Super-ego ,so the Ego can express it to the real world ) . However, Lacie still wants to keep fighting for “ that” . When Susan asked what is that Lacie doesn't even know what she wants . In other words she wants it but doesn't understand why . This is resumed to a deficient illness, caused by addiction . An addiction cause by excessive levels of dopamine . For example whenever you press 'like' button on Facebook, this action provoke the brain to increase the libido . Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for increasing the libido levels. Cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and other psycho stimulants also increase the level of dopamine which appear to be the primary factor in causing addiction. In other words, pressing “like” buttons and being “liked” by people in social media has the same effect of addiction than psycho stimulants on your brain such as cocaine or ecstasy.

According to Turkle conclusion In Alone Together “Online, we easily find "company" but are exhausted by the pressures of performance. We enjoy continual connection but rarely have each other's full attention […] Online, we easily find "company" but are exhausted by the pressures of performance. We enjoy continual connection but rarely have each other's full attention. We can have instant audiences but flatten out what we say to each other in new reductive genres of abbreviation. We like it that the Web "knows" us, but this is only possible because we compromise our privacy […] Online, we can lose confidence that we are communicating or cared for. Confused, we may seek solace in even more connection. We may become intolerant of our own company “ .

Just proved that the theme shown on the Nosedive episode, a no far future dystopia is actually happening in modern society . This episode is a clear critique through exaggeration of a recent but real social issue on modern society , that people are facing nowadays.

CONCLUSION Freud's human psyche theory can be visible applied on how society interact in modern society through social media . Different online platforms such as Facebook or Chatroulette represent different types of the human psyche ( Id, Ego and Super-Ego) to an extremely similarity level .

Although in Nosedive episode present a fictional dystopia of modern society , according to Turkle's studies on “Identity “ and after comparing and analysing , it suggest that the line between that fictional world and ours is thiner than we think, or to be exacts, there is not line at all.

In conclusion, humanity depends on technology too much. It is proved that it has became a modern addiction. In a world where technology rules and online identity has more value because is socially acceptable, is the norm. And with time, perhaps this new method of being socialisation becomes natural. As Marshall Mcluhan predicted modern society a few decades ago , there is no better way to end this essay with a last deep quote “ We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us “ .

References Books: Duivestein, S. Bloem, J. (2013) The Dark Side of Social Media: Alarm bells, analysis and the way out. Netherlands: Sogeti VINT Freud, S.( 1923) The Ego and the Id. United States: Pacific Publishing Studio Siegfried, W. (2014) The Formation and Structure of the Human Psyche.Florida: Athene Noctua Turkle, S.(2012) Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. United States: The Perseus Books Group Websites: Balick, A. ( 2013) The Psyche of Social Networking:Id, Ego and Superego (Online) http://www.aaronbalick.com/blog/the-psyche-of-social-networking-id-ego-andsuperego/ (Accessed: 25 of March, 2017) Handlen, Z. (2016) Black Mirror returns, please swipe right (online) http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/black-mirror-returns-please-swipe-right-244425 (Accessed: 23 of March,2017) Robinson , M.(2016) Social Media and Its Discontents:Freud and Facebook (Online) https://medium.com/@mollyrobinson/social-media-and-its-discontents-freud-andfacebook-8dca63f0ed25 (Accessed: 5 of March, 2017) Seiter, C. (2016) The Psychology of Social Media: The Deep Impulses That Drive Us Online (Online) https://blog.bufferapp.com/psychology-of-social-media (Accessed: 24 of February, 2017) Soat, M. (2015) Social Media Triggers a Dopamine High (Online) https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/feeding-the-addiction.aspx (Accessed: 23 of February,2017) Wikipedia (2017) Dopamine (Online)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine (Accessed: 18 of February, 2017) Wikipedia (2017) Marshall McLuhan (Online) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan (Accessed: 29 of January, 2017) Figures: Figure 1: Billy, B (2016) Black Mirror NoseDive (Illustration) http://cdn2.digitalartsonline.co.uk/cmsdata/slideshow/3651587/nosedive.jpg Figure 2: Black Mirror (2016) NoseDive (Screenshot) https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QhqLtoJ7NmH6QVNf2mo9BTs0ro0=/cdn0.voxcdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7333107/BlackMirror_EP3_nosedive_0101r.0.jpg Figure 3: Black Mirror (2016) NoseDive (Screenshot) https://static2.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1562/15626911/3148745-s3e1.jpg