I've always been fascinated by the phenomenon of people showing themselves naked on the net. Ordinary people showing their bodies and genitals to total strangers.
Why are they doing this? What do they want or get out of it? Are they exhibitionists? Not really. Is it all just for fun? Is porn simply becoming a lifestyle? Or is there more to it?
(For those who know Michel Foucault's work: would this urge of people to show themselves naked to total strangers, have something to do with the "desire to confess" that is still at work in our modern societies? Would the "will to confess" have transformed itself and located "truth" in the naked body instead of in the soul, as was the case in the ancient logic of confession? How does showing onesself naked play into one's identity-formation?)
In any case, let's stick to more quantitative talk for the time being, and let's look at the phenomenon by the numbers.
How many people do you think have ever put a picture of themselves naked on the internet? (That is, all images showing genitals, body parts or full bodies, in copulation or not - and in pictures or video).
A pointer: there are now approximately 1.4 billion people with internet access. The net began to penetrate households in a big way from the early 1990s onwards. So we have had roughly 20 years of time building the web.
Why are they doing this? What do they want or get out of it? Are they exhibitionists? Not really. Is it all just for fun? Is porn simply becoming a lifestyle? Or is there more to it?
(For those who know Michel Foucault's work: would this urge of people to show themselves naked to total strangers, have something to do with the "desire to confess" that is still at work in our modern societies? Would the "will to confess" have transformed itself and located "truth" in the naked body instead of in the soul, as was the case in the ancient logic of confession? How does showing onesself naked play into one's identity-formation?)
In any case, let's stick to more quantitative talk for the time being, and let's look at the phenomenon by the numbers.
How many people do you think have ever put a picture of themselves naked on the internet? (That is, all images showing genitals, body parts or full bodies, in copulation or not - and in pictures or video).
A pointer: there are now approximately 1.4 billion people with internet access. The net began to penetrate households in a big way from the early 1990s onwards. So we have had roughly 20 years of time building the web.
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