Introduction

In Communication Power Castells (2009) differentiates between what he terms as ‘mass communication’ and ‘mass self-communication’. The former emerged with the rise of new technologies in industrial societies. Newspapers, radio, TV and so on all enabled messages to be communicated to mass audiences. With the rise of the internet, however, a different and more interactive form of mass self-communication has become the norm. More commonly associated these days with social media sites, mass self-communication is a global medium that enables media convergence to proceed apace through the likes of digital networks and the production of self-generated and self-communicated messages. As a result, Castells is fairly positive about the democratic potentials and possibilities of mass communication (Castells, 2009, pp 54–5). Arguably, he therefore works, albeit critically, within a ‘liberation technology’ perspective in so far that he sees social media as a means to ‘expand political, social, and economic freedom’ (Diamond, 2010, p 70).

But, while Castells describes social media along these lines he says less about its relationship to the deeper processes of neoliberalism (Fenton and Barassi, 2011, p 191). This is an important point because there is another critical sense in which social media also depoliticises public activism by promoting enjoyable neoliberal ideals to users. After all, social media sites urge people to upload amusing, emotional and personal information about their Selves to others, including information about consumer and leisure pursuits. At the same time, it encourages users to ‘manage’ and ‘market’ their everyday Selves through popular culture and everyday personal experiences. Through sites like Facebook, individuals can in effect modify their identities and assemble their Selves into competent online ‘brands’. To gain a critical perspective on social media it is vital to understand that this occurs through emotional elements of popular culture. By having fun, heated discussions, swapping the latest gossip about celebrities and so on, individuals are often less likely to care if information from their personal ‘brand’ is then collected and harvested by major companies for profit-related purposes. Social media thereby delineates a new type of fetishism and ideology in society that on one level at least is compatible with the constitution of a neoliberal subjectivity. And, as an ideology, social media mystifies contradictions associated with neoliberalism.