Unit 1: Social Networks (1ère Générale)

 Modern Self-Portraits

The document under study is an article from the Atlantic published in 2014. It is about the evolution of self-portraits in our human history.

We have learned that back then, portrait were painted and only accessible for the rich and the powerful people. While nowadays, portraits are digital and democratized. Both have in common the fact that they are made to show your image and your personality and popularity to the world. For both of them, the goal is to attract people’s attention. It is also to create the perfect image of you as you want people to see you.

The impact on our daily lives nowadays is that social networking sites are a presentation of our daily lives and cultures online.

Moreover, digital portraits are the very first impression others have about you. It also has an impact on our culture and language as new words are created such as “to friend someone”, “to tag”, “to like”, “to poke”… On the political level, a lot of politicians are using social media to develop their campaigns and reach a younger audience.

Nowadays, our look on society has evolved, indeed having a good image is more important than developing our spirit, intelligence. We deny our true self to create an illusion of what we want people to think of us.

To conclude, we have entered into a world in which image is the major key to play a role in our society.

Homework: Learn the lesson.