Power In Foucault's Panopticon

Alexandra Wallace is a dropout student of UCLA who was known nationwide in 2011 for uploading a racist YouTube video in which she complained about Asian people talking on their phones in the library at UCLA. There is irony in her situation since she was a Political Science major and made the mistake of not being politically correct. She was scrutinized by the media for making those comments in her video. Though she most likely did not want the attention she received nationwide it may have been her goal as many people who make YouTube videos hope to become famous, but clearly not in such a poor light. The school never commented on what she said, in the end her departure from UCLA was a result of the death threats she received after uploading
“The Panopticon” is a chapter in Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish” that he wrote later in his life. The Panopticon is an idea first illustrated by a circular prison in which all the cells are open to an area in the center where a tower sits. The tower in the center is meant to be blacked out so that it is impossible for the inmates to peer inside. Foucault states the purpose of the Panopticon to create a situation in which, “inmates should be caught up in in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers” (288). The psychological effect on inmates causes them to be inline out of fear that they may be observed at any given moment which can be used as an easy way to define discipline. The psychological effect can be viewed as the practice of instilling discipline as the inmates are aware of how they are to behave and they act accordingly out fear of being punished because they live with the uncertainty of being observed. This practice of instilling discipline through observation and punishment is used everywhere: schools, office spaces, stores, hospitals, etc. People in these different situations would be under different circumstances than that of those in the prison. They would be watched by other people of the same authoritative level who have the rules instilled within themselves. It
While many parallels are there between the original concept of the Panopticon and modern Panopticism, they are not identical in practice. Many people use social media such as Facebook and YouTube where they voluntarily put themselves in view of the public and are judged. Facebook is a smaller platform for most people though due to the probability of them having their posts only viewable to accounts of friends. YouTube is generally meant to be seen by anyone wherever there is internet access. YouTube is one of the best social media outlets that operates like the Panopticon. In Foucault’s words “The more numerous those anonymous and temporary observers are, the greater the risk for the inmate of being surprised and the greater his anxious awareness of being observed”