Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals

Evidence

The credible claim to being a social necessity was, in retrospect, the most important thing that Facebook achieved; its rivals would never come close to matching it. As Zuckerberg said in 2009, “Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They’re keeping up with their friends and family, but they’re also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand. They’re connecting with the audience that they want to connect to. It’s almost a disadvantage if you’re not on it now.” It was not merely a matter of utility but a different way of being in the world that Facebook was able to offer and also to cultivate. The idea of the self as brand did not originate with Zuckerberg, but would certainly gain currency with the Facebook generation, who would be known for not remaining in one job too long and for thinking of themselves and their experience unironically as products to be marketed, professionally and even socially. As celebrities had become, the ordinary individual was now more of a business proposition. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier chapters on celebrity branding and how attention platforms reshape identity; also relates to scholarship on entrepreneurial selfhood and personal branding culture. — connects to: Ordinary users adopt corporate self-surveillance tactics to manage their social media presence — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 259; The Web enabled individuals to apply corporate branding strategies to themselves — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 466; Facebook pursued chatbots to own the interface for online commerce — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 88 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #corroborates (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• Social media promotes an ideal of privatizing the self into corporate form #expands (0.90) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 354
• Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers #qualifies (0.70) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 416