Self-branding functions as a neoliberal technology of subjectivity shaping its practitioners.

Evidence

But self-branding should not go uncriticized; rather, it needs to be analyzed on both an individual and community-based level. That analysis should include an understanding of how the social becomes economic and vice versa. It should question how people describe the fantasy of personal branding, and how market-centered practices fulfill or neglect self-branders’ needs. We must understand the concrete effects of self-branding—a neoliberal technology of subjectivity—on the practitioners themselves. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 427

Categorization

• DEFINE: Marwick’s framing of self-branding as a ‘neoliberal technology of subjectivity’ is the chapter’s core theoretical definition and a keyword for the field.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s technologies of the self and to Marxist critiques of commodification also present in this reading list. — connects to: Online self-presentation expresses a neoliberal subjectivity applying market principles to identity — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 25; Social media self-presentation is a technology of self-governance under neoliberal capitalism.; Self-branding’s demand for total presence becomes sadistic control — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 96 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-branding exercises frame profit-seeking as the discovery of an authentic self. #expands (0.90) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 496
• Self-branding treats the self as a salable commodity marketed to employers #expands (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 418
• Self-branding normalizes surveillance and produces strategic, edited selves #expands (0.82) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 721
• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 416
• Self-branding’s demand for total presence becomes sadistic control #qualifies (0.72) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 96