Filling the Void : Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media / Marcus Gilroy-Ware.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilroy-Ware, Marcus.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social media--Economic aspects.

Social media.

Social media--Political aspects.

Capitalism.

Civilization--Political aspects.

Civilization.

Consumption (Economics).

Press and politics.

Communication in politics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 224 pages ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Repeater, [2017]

Summary:

Filling The Void is a book about how the cultures and psychology of social media use fit within a broader landscape of life under capitalism. It argues that social media use is often a psychological response to the need for pleasure and comfort that results from the stresses of life under postmodern capitalism, rather than being a driver of new behaviours as newer technologies are often said to be. Both the explosive growth of social media and the corresponding reconfiguration of the web from an information-based platform into an entertainment-based one are far more easily explained in terms of the subjective psychological experience of their users as capitalist subjects seeking 'depressive hedonia, ' the book argues. Filling the Void also interrogates the role of social media networks, designed for private commercial gain, as part of a de-facto public sphere. Both the decreasing subjective importance of factual media and the ways in which the content of the timeline are quietly manipulated--often using labour in the developing world and secret algorithms--have potentially serious implications for the capacity of social media users to query or challenge the seeming reality offered by the established hegemonic order.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-208) and index.

"A Repeater Books paperback original 2017"--Title page verso.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781910924945

1910924946

OCLC:

983464232