Social Media, Delinguistification and Colonization of Lifeworld

Abstract

The article critically investigates, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how the current evolution of social media-like social network sites-interferes with the balance between private, commercial, and public space. We build on the concepts of lifeworld and systems, developed in Habermas' theory of communicative action. The discussion is supported and enriched by the work of Feenberg and van Dijck, integrating insights from Science and Technology Studies and media studies. Technology philosopher and critical Science and Technology Studies scholar Feenberg introduces technology as a steering "medium" that delinguistifies and possibly colonizes the lifeworld by reinterpreting media sociological perspectives of Habermas, Marcuse, Latour, and Callon. In a similar way, media scholar van Dijck analyses the transition from human connectedness to automated connectivity in the context of social media. We then illustrate the delinguistification and the colonization of lifeworld with a systematic analysis of the contingent evolution of Facebook as one particular case in social media. We focus on three specific artifacts in Facebook, framed as obligatory passage points: EdgeRank, Sponsored Stories, and Gatekeeper. Each of them gives an idea how the private space is subsumed under the commercial space and how the colonization reconfigures the public space in social media like Facebook. In this sense, we complement the political economy analysis of prosumer commodity with the action-theoretical autonomist approach of immaterial labor, highlighting new potential threats of the current social media development.

Domesticating Facebook: The Shift From Compulsive Connection to Personal Service Platform

“…Our respondents report their relationship with Facebook in highly personal and contradictory ways, demonstrating the richness of their experiences and personal meanings—as well as the changing nature of Facebook—themes which are at the basis of domestication research (e.g., Brügger, 2015; Heyman & Pierson, 2015; Livingstone, 1992; Silverstone & Hirsch, 1992; Strathern, 1992). Amid the many opposing stories and even contradictory observations within each respondents’ experience, a few commonalities emerged, First, the many clashing stories demonstrate highly “personal economies of meaning.” Second, respondents describe a shift from compulsive connection to a more comfortable and mundane connection.…”

Colonization by Algorithms in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“…Social network websites and other forms of invisible data affect, often adversely, the balance between private, commercial, and public space [28]. Facebook allegedly used user data, including information about friends, relationships, and photos as leverage over companies it partnered with.…”

Digital platforms as entangled infrastructures: Addressing public values and trust in messaging apps

“…This entanglement is even deliberately obfuscated, as explained by Zuboff (2019) discussing the emergence of surveillance capitalism. With the obfuscated and complex character of data commodification, it is not obvious for everyday users to become aware and understand how these platforms really operate and particularly how they differ from one another in terms of their monetization and data strategy (Heyman and Pierson, 2015). And even if people are aware of this, they mostly have no choice of to accept this, because otherwise they cannot use the 'gratis' service.…”