Reaching Subjectivity

Kierkegaard argues in Concluding Unscientific Postscript that our task as individuals is to learn how to be subjective and to understand our own subjectivity. We need to refrain from objectively, for we are not objects. Each person has a subjective self, an identity, which is deeper than our notion of truth in the metaphysical world. We need to nurture and encourage that self to live complete and enlightened lives.

To develop that self, we must find or create a realm of privacy. It is there, and not in the public sphere, that the subjective self can reach its full potential. Only individuals, all individuals, have subjectivity and it is only in the private realm that this subjectivity exists.

In an attempt to gain subjectivity we create a mask, our Facebook profiles or Twitter updates, to understand ourselves. To an individual this is an innocent attempt to define himself, but to the observer this is an objective illustration of that individual. “The objective tendency, which proposes to make everyone an observer, and in its maximum to transform him into so objective an observer that he becomes almost a ghost” (Kierkegaard 118). When one is only an objective observer and refrains from being subjective, he becomes vacant, lacking a true self. This also can be said for the silhouettes of our true selves that we create on the internet. A Facebook profile is an image the person is presenting to the public. The public then forms opinions on the person based on his favorite music, the picture he chose for his profile and the various groups he joined. This is not an accurate perception of a person and his true, inner, subjective self.

There exists an innate quality within each individual which leads them to define their own subjectivity and inner truths. “Every human being has a strong natural bent and passion to become something more and different” (Kierkegaard 116). In the broad scheme of the world, we look to the people around us for guidance. This can perhaps explain our fascination with online networking sites. Originally Facebook users contested the addition of the Facebook News Feed, “[y]et when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive” (Thompson 2). We are easily drawn to objective truths to help us define ourselves, yet as Kierkegaard would claim, it is not through objectivity that we discover our inner selves. It requires a much more intimate process.

Our subjectivity and morality are incredibly private components of ourselves. Facebook and other online programs put us into the public realm, thus objectifying ourselves. While Facebook is a tool to present ourselves, compare ourselves and keep tabs on others, it does little more than create a façade that can sometimes be an obstacle on the way to achieving subjectivity.