Instrumentarian social engineering principles produce chronic self-comparison among young women online
Evidence
In a subsequent elaboration on the psychological consequences of experiencing oneself from the “outside looking in,” a 2017 survey of young British women ages 11–21 suggests that the social principles of instrumentarian society, so enthusiastically elaborated by Pentland and endorsed by surveillance capitalist leaders, appear to be working effectively. Thirty-five percent of the women said that their biggest worry online was comparing themselves and their lives with others as they are drawn into “constant comparisons with often idealized versions of the lives, and bodies, of others.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1426
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Metrics become socially interpreted measures of personal self-worth — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 217; Influencer-era self-help literature frames women as male-optimization trophies — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 456; Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Social media is precision-engineered to exploit adolescent desires for peer recognition.
#corroborates(0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1432 - Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale
#corroborates(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1476 - Social comparison is the dominant psychological process in the Facebook experience.
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1470