Is Social Media Capitalism's Postmodern Pleasure Trap? 'Filling the Void' w/ Marcus Gilroy-Ware

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Dec 3, 2023

Author Marcus Gilroy-Ware explores the psychological conditions behind our love of social media and its relationship to capitalism. He discusses the evolution of the internet into a corporate-controlled platform, the allure of doom scrolling, the complexities of capitalism's impact on society, the rise of online reactionary culture, the commodification of data, and his current projects on hope, creativity, and challenging societal discourse around manhood.

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Introduction

00:00 • 6min

The Transformation of the Internet and the Exploitation of Labor and Capital in Social Media

05:40 • 10min

The Fascination with Doom Scrolling

15:39 • 6min

Exploring the Void and Depressive Houdonia in the Context of Capitalism

22:08 • 5min

Social Media, Reactionary Politics, and Misinformation

26:58 • 6min

The Enclosure of Digital Spaces and the Commodification of Data

32:39 • 26min

Marcus Gilroy-Ware's Current and Future Projects

58:53 • 2min

Buy the book: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/filling-the-void-emotion-capitalism-and-social-media/

It argues that social media use is often a psychological response to the need for pleasure and comfort that results from the stresses of life under postmodern capitalism, rather than being a driver of new behaviours as newer technologies are often said to be. Both the explosive growth of social media and the corresponding reconfiguration of the web from an information-based platform into an entertainment-based one are far more easily explained in terms of the subjective psychological experience of their users as capitalist subjects seeking ‘depressive hedonia’ the book argues.

Filling the Void also interrogates the role of social media networks, designed for private commercial gain, as part of a de-facto public sphere. Both the decreasing subjective importance of factual media and the ways in which the content of the timeline are quietly manipulated – often using labour in the developing world and secret algorithms – have potentially serious implications for the capacity of social media users to query or challenge the seeming reality offered by the established hegemonic order.

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