added by sari and · updated 12d ago
Social Media Is Not Self-Expression
- - "To exist on platforms is to be subject to this kind of continual identity reconstitution, to fluidity. Self-branding attempts to hide this inevitability by claiming agency over it, as though by choosing to turn our identity into capital, it becomes a free choice. Self-obfuscation, on the other hand, effectively embraces it through a kind of acce... See more
from Who Can It Be Now — Real Life by Emma Stamm
Brian Sholis added
- - "the concrete practices of the tech industry now structure identity and individuality in ways that support its own hegemony. While it presents endless avenues for expression, it sees us as wholly reducible to market logic, where we are real to the degree that our consumption habits are rational. This vision of selfhood promotes uniformity and bou... See more
from Who Can It Be Now — Real Life by Emma Stamm
Brian Sholis and added
Social media forms are performative solo forms with an odd conflation of friendship and marketing; the body is alone in a room performing the self, with an undercurrent of desire for applause. Without a town square to gather in and hash out the day with neighbors, social media communications have a shading of loneliness underneath.
from The Choreography of Everyday Life: A Leaping Antidote to Our Modern Loneliness by Maria Popova
sari added