Omnipresence

The panopticon was a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791. It was circular in shape with the cells on the outside and a guard tower located in the centre. It allowed a guard in a central tower to view the prisoners at all times, but the prisoners could not see the guard in the central tower. Unable to see if they were being watched or not, power became omnipresent, thus inducing a certain type of behaviour. Later, the French philosopher Michel Foucault used the panopticon as an analogy to describe how disciplinary societies are structured. Contemporary society, like the panopticon, constantly surveils us, inducing a certain kind of behaviour which over time becomes internalised.