Little mermaids and pro-sumers : The dilemma of authenticity and surveillance in hybrid public space...
The dilemma of authenticity and surveillance in hybrid public spaces

<jats:p> In this article the authors explore the ways in which social media and social network sites (SNSs) are mediating the new urban environment. Many analyses of these technologies highlight the ways in which they are predicated on surveillance techniques and how the self is increasingly entwined within them. The authors examine the processes of surveillance, and the surveillant assemblage, and how the self interacts with these technologies to produce an authentic self in mediated urban spaces. They argue that SNS technologies privilege a version of the contemporary self, limiting choice to ‘pro-sumer’ activity, and a mandatory self-surveillance. Instead of constructing an open public sphere, these technologies operate to build a ‘second city’ of commodified urban space in which the recording of banal activities in an everyday setting is the authentic lived experience of people using this technology. </jats:p>