Alienation, Exploitation, and Social Media

The grandest element of today’s culture is perhaps technology – social media’s takeover in particular – and its frightening ability to exploit us in what we do, what we think, what we “like,” what we believe. Social media was created as a way for adults, teens, and now even children to truly reposition themselves – to go from their simple selves to a kind of social celebrity. We can certainly blame “culture” for this exploitation, but as frequent users of media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, we are ultimately exploiting ourselves. We have accepted a very welcoming invitation into a dangerous world, or computer screen, of brutal honesty. As is encouraged of us, every day we make our private lives public. And often struggle to later regain our long lost privacy, if we have not yet lost sense of it entirely. With technology’s quickly advancing powers, a simple photo, a “tweet,” a video, can haunt us forever. From university administrators to future employers to the websites themselves, culture’s latest advancements are constantly exploiting us. And in an attempt to get ahead, or even just keep up, we abuse technology in return.

Who is at fault after all? Are we innocently following the strict trends of modern society? Or have we narcissistically become our own paparazzi? Facebook remains one of today’s paradigms in the world of technology, where users can simultaneously produce and consume. A person is provided with immediate access to a variety of information: profiles, photos, frequent status updates, “likes,” wall-to-wall conversations, almost-live videos, etc. Whether or not users perceive it as such, Facebook and its fellow social media outlets have become a commodity. We may not pay t...

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...s world, we are constantly being exploited: by computers, friends, employers, administrators, advertisements, and so on. But the unhealthiest part of the process is the vicious cycle it takes us around, leaving our main exploit to be none other than ourselves.

Works Cited

Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. "Enlightenment as Mass Deception." Culture Industry (1993): 405-15. Print.

Hooks, Bell, and Amalia Messa-Bains. "Public Culture." Homegrown (2006): 61-73. Print.

Kracauer, Benjamin. "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility." Production, Reproduction, and Reception (1936): 19-42. Print.

Rey, P. J. "Alienation, Exploitation, and Social Media." American Behavioral Scientist (2012): 399-418. Print.

Schlicht, Ekkehart. "Social Evolution, Corporate Culture, and Exploitation." IZA Discussion Paper Series (2002): 1-10. Print.