Digital identity and the logic of alienation in network capitalism

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of digital capitalism in a post-Marxist context. FacebookInstagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms use the categories of commodity fetishism, alienation, and surplus value to examine how digital technologies and social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others) transform communication and user activity into a form of exploitation. The user acts not only as a consumer, but also as a producer of information and data, creating a new form of “digital labor.” The ideology of engagement (connecting - sharing) masks alienation, turning the very process of presence into a commodity. Under the conditions of network capitalism, the boundaries between work and leisure, personal and public, are blurring, which leads to the formation of digital alienation and deterritorialization of the subject. Technology is becoming fetishistic, and communication is becoming an instrument of control and reproduction of capitalist totality.