Apparently, the digital media culture of the United States has risen so high in popularity that electronic accessories like Facebook and Apple Inc. items have made their way onto the hit cartoon show South Park. The public necessity to use digital media, to be a member of the social networking phenomenon and to buy endless supplies of iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops has gone beyond simply participating in the consumer realm. Now people are able to watch television shows mocking the incessant use of digital media, ironically, through the media itself.
South Park tends to actively address cultural controversy such as the Terry Schiavo incident, Barack Obama winning the 2008 presidential election, the population’s obsession with the video game World of Warcraft, and the Facebook following. Usually, the show takes a stance aiming to point out the absurdity of aspects of the issue at hand.
In the episode entitled “You Have 0 Friends”, the character Stan is the only child in his circle of friends reluctant to join Facebook. Once his friends craft him a Facebook page without his approval, the pressure to add friends and participate in the online social network surmounts. Stan begins to realize that “digital culture is not separate from ‘ordinary’ culture” (Barker 348). His girlfriend and his dad both see their relationship with Stan in a different light once they realize they aren’t on his Facebook friend list. When Stan retorts to his father that he doesn’t want to get further into Facebook, Stan’s dad says “so I’m not your friend then?” His girlfriend immediately requests that he change his relationship status to in a relationship and to add her as a friend. Both of these characters begin to question their connection to Stan not because their interaction with him had changed, but simply because they were not linked digitally. In this way, the digital world and the ordinary world cannot be separated. The socially accepted notion revolves around other individual’s opinions about who one is. Since Facebook allows more people to see that identity through Internet space, the digital identity seems to stand more relevant that the identity emitted in person. Thus, if people are not friends on Facebook, the implication stands that they aren’t friends in the ordinary world as well. It’s interesting to note that Stan gives into each person’s request. He says he will add his father, and he apologizes to his girlfriend. Perhaps the writers of the show are asserting that the Internet has more power over our identities than it presents on the surface.
Besides the fact that digital media allows social pressures to surmount and individual identities to be constructed multiple times in both the digital and ordinary realm, another struggle still remains to plague the Internet. The convenient of digital media that supplies endless informational contacts also presents the possibility of constant surveillance. Many people are concerned about “the potential of digital technology to be a tool for Big Brother style centralized surveillance and control… electronic cameras and digital databases can store immense amounts of information about them” (348). The episode of South Park that brings this fear right through the television and into American’s homes is entitled “HUMANCENTiPAD” which aims to satirize the Apple brand’s catchy product nomenclature.
“I just don’t want any big company tracking where I am at all times,” says the adult character in the clip of the episode above. This line of dialogue is delivered right before Apple employees rush the scene to kidnap the character Kyle. They inform him that he agreed to a contract entitling Apple to do anything they like with him and his body. The terms and conditions of iTunes apparently stated this explicitly, however like many Internet and iTunes users in the world today, Kyle didn’t read the contract yet agreed anyway. From here on, in the episode, the company has control over its consumers. It contains any and all information about them, and can use it in anyway it deems beneficial to the company. In reality, surveillance and the tracking of individuals’ information is “done in the name of preventing fraud and apprehending criminals” (348), however, South Park is posing the question, what happens when governments and companies begin to use these surveillance abilities for their own benefit, at any cost to the consumer? They’re forcing their audience to consider, “how long will it be before the same methods are deployed as a standard tool for identifying and ‘managing’ political dissidents?” (348). The episode suggests that people of the American culture are so saturated with the need for the latest digital media, the newest version of iTunes, or the best app for Facebook, they will give up anything to download it.
In the clip, Stan’s friends tell him they always read the Terms and Conditions before clicking accept. However, the question then becomes, if the Terms and Conditions are something unacceptable, how can one get the product anyway? If there is no way to get the desired outcome, will said participant agree despite the risk? Perhaps the general population should refrain from seeing cyberspace as a cyberutopia, and realize that there are beneficial aspects just as there are possibilities to place oneself in unintended, dangerous situations. Stan had to find out the hard way. And that’s South Park’s message: be aware of the Internet’s range of possibilities, and how to protect oneself from them, even if it means giving up the latest edition of iTunes.
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Works Cited
Barker, Chris. "Digital Media Culture." Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2008. 348. Print.
South Park - You Have 0 Friends. Dir. Trey Parker. Youtube.com. 9 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Aug. 2011.
South Park - HUMANCENTiPAD. Dir. Trey Parker. Comedy Central.Southparkstudios.com. 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011.
