Social network platforms are engineered to brand everyday users for advertisers

Evidence

This chapter argues that social network platforms are not social utilities, but, in fact, celebrification utilities. That is, they are programmed to necessarily brand users by extracting and filtering identifications to be easily consumed by advertisers, just as microcelebrities promote specific, “authentic” aspects of self that can be easily consumed by fans. Through a discourse analysis of Facebook’s functionalities and in-depth interviews with 45 emerging adults, I present an analysis of microcelebrity culture through the narratives of everyday users who are not actively involved in self-branding but are instead compelled by the site’s inherent design to unintentionally brand – they unknowingly align with corporation-like mission statements; ignore multiple, dynamic selves; and discard their right to anonymity. — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe, 334

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School material on the culture industry and engineered subjectivity — platforms shaping user identification into consumable brands parallels Adorno’s account of mass culture producing standardized selves. — connects to: Platform rules recondition authenticity, sociality, and acceptance into branded terms — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe:…, 394; Facebook replaced flowing multiple selves with a single mandatory real identity — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe:…, 370; Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004
• Surveillance platforms extract behavioral data from users and sell predictions to advertisers #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 297
• Platform profits come from harvesting user attention and selling it back to advertisers #expands (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 43
• The Web enabled individuals to apply corporate branding strategies to themselves #corroborates (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 466
• Large social platforms function as aggregators of niche tracking services #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 542