Social media and the problem of alienation from the point of view of post-Marxism

Abstract

The article considers the transformation o f classical Marxist concept o f alienation, as well as related it concepts o f commodity fetishism and surplus value in the context o f social media functioning. The role o f social media as tools fo r creating surplus value and as means o f exploiting digital labor is shown. It is argued that social media functions on the basis o f an engaging-connectingproviding ideology as a technology for masking the exploitation o f digital labor. It is argued that such an ideology functions as a technology for masking the exploitation o f digital labor. Experiencing a positive experience o f socialization and communication, an individual provides a lot o f personal data for business strategies. A t the same time, the focus o f attention is on such a phenomenon as digital alienation, which consists in the fact that the virtual space o f social media communications provokes the splitting o f the identity o f an individual who becomes a continuum. A s an alternative to the lost identity, modern high-tech capitalism provides digital identification. This process can be understood within the framework o f the development o f the concept o f “death o f the subject”. After the transcendental subject, the empirical subject leaves, in the light o f which we explain the growing popularity o f transhumanism. A t the same time, digital alienation can be interpreted within the framework o f the capitalist logic o f deterritorialization.