Personalization rhetoric makes individuals identify with their social functions

Evidence

The same familiarity is established through personalized language, which plays a considerable role in advanced communication. It is “your” congressman, “your” highway, “your” favorite drugstore, “your” newspaper; it is brought “to you,” it invites “you,” etc. In this manner, superimposed, standardized, and general things and functions are presented as “especially for you.” It makes little difference whether or not the individuals thus addressed believe it. Its success indicates that it promotes the self-identification of the individuals with the functions which they and the others perform. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 392

Categorization

• XREF: Direct bridge to the reader’s attention/consumption interest — ‘your feed,’ ‘for you’ algorithmic personalization reproduces exactly this mechanism. — connects to: Personalized leader propaganda substitutes psychological imagery for objective discussion; Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595; Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide…, 284 (+3 more)
• SEED: Potential essay: how Marcuse’s personalized-language critique prefigures algorithmic recommendation’s ‘especially for you’ — belief need not be sincere for self-identification to work.

Broader Connections

• Personalized leader propaganda substitutes psychological imagery for objective discussion #contradicts (0.85)
• Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595
• Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types #expands (0.75) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 284