Disclaimer: The following may be indicative of the fact that I have begun to live much too much of my life in a cyber reality.
As I was reading Pierre Bourdieu's article, "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste," I found myself thinking again and again of the infamous social networking website facebook.com. Bourdieu writes,
"Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position in the objective classifications is expressed or betrayed."
Bourdieu argues that taste is representative of social class and that the difference boils down to form and function. While the more educated class tries to distance itself from the common, ordinary function of everyday things and instead establish a stylized version of life and art which must be decoded and which operates through representations, the working class values functionality and the things being represented more than their representations. Distinguished art, dress, food, and music seeks as much as possible to remove itself from ordinary emotion and experience and to become purified and refined. Conversely, Bourdieu makes note of the fact that when working-class audiences watch movies or read novels, they reject formal experimentation which they do not know how to decode and which prevents them from fully identifying with characters. Additionally, when interpreting art, the working class instinctively looks for images to be functional, often making judgments based upon morality or agreeableness.
Though it is easy to say in hindsight that Bourdieu's observations were something I had already understood, the truth of the matter is that I had not before thought about taste and distinction in this way-- as a distancing from the natural and necessary and as an reinforcer of class and educational differences. I realized as I was reading Bourdieu that I often pride myself on my taste in music, movies, books, etc, but that the only real reason I enjoy these things is because I have been taught how to enjoy/decode them (and perhaps I seek out that distinctiveness?) Had I been exposed to an independent or indie film without having been taught what to appreciate (the way it is filmed, the symbols, the acting, the strength of the dialogue, etc), then I would surely not have immediately loved it the way I now immediately love this type of film when I see one. I would have been confused by the detachment from reality, by the emphasis on form above functionality, and by the elusiveness of the meaning. It is impossible that works of art can produce in us an experience of "love at first sight" unless we have been trained in the cultural codes that are necessary to decipher them.
Anyway, returning finally to my original point relating Bourdieu to facebook. I believe that facebook functions primarily as a means for people to display their tastes and celebrate their distinctiveness to the approval or disapproval of the broader facebook world. There are different profile categories which encourage facebook users to list favorite movies, music, books, and television shows, thus betraying their social class and probable level of education. I shudder to think that as I scan through my friends' profiles, I am merely discerning whether or not they reject the functionality of popular culture and embrace the stylistic concerns of the cultural elite. Why should we find our identities in our ability to decode and appreciate elevated art, music, and movies? Why should we market ourselves as lovers of "ethnic food" or of the reality series "Top Chef" when this signifies above anything else that we can afford luxury and do not subsist on more economical foods? How much do any of these silly distinctions actually communicate about us as individuals? Can we believe our tastes to be indicative of our personalities or merely of our culture, upbringing, education, and social class? Why do we put forth such time and effort into both developing and displaying our distinctive tastes?
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