Transparency, Social Media and Cultural Patterns

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Jantelagen (The Law of Jante)

mars 9th, 2010 . by @collentine . No Comments

Jantelagen (The Law of Jante)

In Scandinavia we have an unofficial law that governs our behavior and is one of those norms that dictate our life.

The law of Jante

1. Thou shalt not believe thou art something.
2. Thou shalt not believe thou art as good as we.
3. Thou shalt not believe thou art more wise than we.
4. Thou shalt not fancy thyself better than we.
5. Thou shalt not believe thou knowest more than we.
6. Thou shalt not believe thou art greater than we.
7. Thou shalt not believe thou amountest to anything.
8. Thou shalt not laugh at us.
9. Thou shalt not believe that anyone is concerned with thee.
10. Thou shalt not believe thou canst teach us anything.

How long will this thought pattern govern the mind-set of the Scandinavian people in our ”global village”?

In Sweden we also have a word that ties in with the Law of Jante. It’s the word ”lagom” which means ”just enough”, ”optimal amount”, ”not too much, not too little”. Using this word in our everyday discussions emphasizes the need to not stick out and be special but instead behave in a ”lagom” way.

Changing the Objectification of Women

Feminists work for a more equal society between genders but how equal can we really become? We have biological differences which affect how we behave and we also have cognitive differences between us e.g. instincts. This becomes very eminent when studying the gaze of people. Men act and women appear. The male tries to find mates by catching their attention, females appear uninterested to attract desirability from the alfa-males.

In pictures models usually have a typical behavior.
Females avert her eyes and thereby shows modesty, patience and a lack of interest in anything else. Or stares straight at the viewer thereby becoming in the viewers ”control”
Males look off/up and thereby shows a suggestion of interest in something else than the viewer.
This is also show by statistics on profile pictures that Okcupid had done on their community.

”Stereotypical notions of masculinity are strongly oriented towards the active.” They avoid being feminine in not being portrayed as the passive object of an active gaze. They control and dominate the situation by making a choice of who to look out at from inside a picture.

Thus to change the objectification of women they need to start gazing more at men and thereby taking control, also when in a picture women need to focus on something outside the lens. The opposite applies to men: act mysterious but maintain the suggestion of interest in the viewer when portrayed in a picture.

So an inquiry to the females (for the sake of equality): GAZE MORE AT MEN;)

Source used: Notes on the Gaze – Daniel Chandler

Inspiration for Week 9

Out Traveling

I’m currently out traveling so no updates for now. Will create some new posts when I get back on Sunday from my trip in Milano and Switzerland. Different cultures, different cultural patterns, always good for inspiration and knowledge traveling around.

Please Rob Me – The risks of Social Media

Social Media is relatively new for most people and many are still exploring the possibilities and uses of it. One of the things that happen with social media is that we become more transparent, we share more of our self to more people then we normally do. This transparency is good in some ways and less good in some.

There’s been several stories of sharing too much information on social media. One example is the case where a British women forgot she had befriended her boss on Facebook.

Another example is the recent case of a Swedish guy who published a picture of himself where he wore a cap with the text ”porn star”. His problem was that parents had seen the picture and the principal called him up and fired him from the childcare center he was working at.

When do people share too much information? I recently found the site pleaserobme.com which wants to make people aware of the risks of telling too much about themself to the world.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.

The website lists everyone that displays their status on Twitter as being away from home. Not in itself a dangerous feature but coupled with a quick search on the persons name on a site that lists where they live (e.g. hitta.se in Sweden) it’s an easy way to rob them without risk.

Keep being transparent but reflect on how and what you share with the world!