Docherty, N. orcid.org/0000-0001-5945-008X (2021) Digital self-control and the neoliberalization of social media well-being. International Journal of Communication, 15. pp. 3827-3846. ISSN 1932-8036
Abstract
Popular debates surrounding social media well-being target individual habit as the locus of critique and change. This article argues that this constitutes a commitment to responsibilized constructs of neoliberal well-being and moralized ideas of atomistic selfcare. Empirical analysis reveals how such visions are discursively and materially embedded in both the well-being tools offered by social media platforms and in the mindful “hacks” of user praxis endorsed by their critics. This is shown to operate as part of a sociotechnical imaginary of self-control where the structural factors crucial to well-being are ignored. Well-being is instead aligned with personal choice. This article exposes the contingency of this view by presenting relational concepts of well-being, showing how critical, comparative interpretive analysis can better account for the psychic costs of the attention economy, thus reinvigorating the issue of social media well-being as a site of political action.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 (Niall Docherty). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Available at http://ijoc.org. |
Keywords: | digital well-being; social media; health; neoliberalism; responsibilization; power; sociotechnical imaginaries |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2022 12:45 |
Last Modified: | 29 Sep 2022 12:45 |
Published Version: | https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/17721... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | USC Annenberg Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:190979 |