All social media feedback seems to ask how we feel about something. Voting, likes, favorites, boosts, etc. The real question being asked is “what part of yourself do you see in this?” but there’s no good way to ask that directly yet.
Furthermore, real important piece of information is that an interaction is being made at all, because that verifies engagement and invests you in that engagement. The content of that interaction can be ignored or changed without changing the fundamental model at play
Yeah, I think this is definitely a big component of the current monetization model
It reminds me of Buzzfeed. The founder apparently wrote an article (dissertation?) on capitalism and identity formation, which is essentially what Buzzfeed came to be.
Here’s a vox article with some more specifics, I don’t know if it’s a “good” article because I’m kinda leery of that French Marxist shit or whatever Deleuze is/represents
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/20/5730762/buzzfeeds-founder-used-to-write-marxist-theory-and-it-explains
Whatever the case, it does seem fair to say that Buzzfeed became incredibly profitable thinking on these terms. So it is certainly applicable in one noteworthy case, and I imagine much more broadly
There’s also the dual case of capital forming and disseminating its opinion of you, which include things like credit checks and all that Equifax type shit
That’s the exact article I just finished reading. Will hopefully be posting a summary tomorrow that doesn’t rely so much on the postmodern minutia to understand (and also doesn’t use the term “schizophrenic” so broadly. I get that it’s supposed to be psychoanalysis, but it’s still pretty offputting for me)
huh, mcluhan sort of got it. the medium might not always be the message, but it might as well be to capitalists.
In the case of social media, the focus on individual stories being boosted is akin to focusing on the specific minerals you’re drinking as you sip from a firehose. The proportions of concern are skewed
