The Entrepreneurial Subject and the Objectivization of the Self in Social Media

The article titled "The Entrepreneurial Subject and the Objectivization of the Self in Social Media" by Matthew Flisfeder was published in the South Atlantic Quarterly 114:3, July 2015.

Prosumption Concept: The idea of "prosumption" is introduced, defined as the confluence of production and consumption, initially articulated by Alvin Toffler in 1980.
Dallas Smythe's Audience Commodity: This concept, from 1977, describes how TV programmers produce audiences for advertisers. Audiences contribute to this through their purchasing behaviors, thereby becoming an "audience commodity".
- Application to Social Media: Social media users create a "prosumer commodity" by providing personal data that social media companies utilize for ad sales (reflected in the research by Fuchs 2014, Andrejevic 2013, Cohen 2008, Dyer-Witheford 1999, Manzerolle 2010, Mosco 2009).
Labor Exploitation on Social Media: Users are exploited as their personal data is generated involuntarily as part of their engagement with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Communicative Capitalism: Jodi Dean (2002, 2009, 2010) introduces the term to describe the role of internet and social media in promoting democratic ideals while perpetuating exploitation and capitalist control.
- Counterarguments: Critics argue that users are compensated for their engagement through the services they receive. However, Fuchs (2014) argues that the value created by users far exceeds the service they are afforded.
Big Data and Dataveillance: The term "dataveillance" relates to the extensive collection of user data by companies for both commercial and governmental surveillance purposes, likened to the concept of the "prosumer commodity".
False Consciousness and Work Awareness: The concept suggests users may not recognize their social media engagement as labor.
Functional Elements of Subjectivization: Social media is increasingly used for professional networking (e.g., LinkedIn), highlighting the dual role of leisure and labor in online spaces.

Distinction between Self and Subject:
- Self: Represents an alienated persona constructed through social media, serving as a commodity for representation.
- Subject: The underlying individual identity that is obscured by the commodified Self.
Performance of Identity: Subject identities are shaped through online representations and branding. Alison Hearn (2010) refers to this as the "digital reputation economy" where individuals market themselves online as commodities.
Self-Branding: Users curate their online presence carefully to appeal to specific audiences, validating their worth and influence online.

Neoliberal vs. Liberal Subject: The neoliberal subject is framed as "human capital" engaged in competition rather than a freely willing laborer entering mutual exchange.
- Charateristics of Liberal Subject: Emphasizes rights and free agency within market exchanges, where labor and capital are seen as equal players.
- Characteristics of Neoliberal Subject: Not merely a subject of exchange but one of competition, defined through human capital where time is interpreted as a productivity investment.
Self-Management: The rise of self-governance aligns with the neoliberal idea of continual self-promotion and marketing, essentially making self-branding a 24/7 endeavor.

User Activity on Social Media: Engaging through social media is often framed as leisure yet represents substantial labor that contributes to the platform's profitability (Fuchs 2014).
Exploitation Through Leisure: The presentation of social media activities as leisure masks the underlying labor and exploitation, which includes activities like posting content and establishing social networks.
Bourdieu's Capital Forms: Social media fosters accumulations of social (relationships), cultural (qualifications, education), and symbolic capital (reputation), which can ultimately translate into economic capital (Fuchs 2014).

Evolution of Social Media Platforms: Post-2005 sites like Facebook and Twitter require users to build personal profiles, a significant shift from earlier anonymous interfaces.
Identity Formation: The structure of social media enforces a singular identity, pressing users to present coherent and marketable images of themselves.

Historiographical Context: 24/7 temporalities illustrate an unprecedented blurring of boundaries between work and personal life facilitated by social media, increasing expectations for constant availability.
Economy of Desire: Users are incited to invent their identities dynamically at all times, contributing to a culture where every action is seen as potentially productive or profitable.

Work and Labor Power: Traditionally, working hours are delineated from leisure; however, neoliberalism promotes the idea that leisure activities contribute to one's labor capacity and marketable human capital.
Commodification of Identity: The time spent constructing an image on social media is not just about enhancing one's identity but also contributes economically, intertwining with the ideological frameworks of labor productivity.
The Intersection of Self and Object: User-generated content turns the Self into an image that operates as a commodity for marketing labor, forming a new economic relation.

Cynical Realism: Mark Fisher’s concept encapsulates the challenge of imagining alternatives to capitalism, positing that consumer culture thrives on cynicism and the normalization of the neoliberal agenda.
Desire and Authority: Access to information and self-representation via social media confronts users with a paradox: the reduction of authority must be countered by creating new forms of it via self-objectification.