Technologies of the self 2.0: the practices of (political) subjectification

Abstract

The article opens up with a discussion about two scientific attitudes towards the interrelation between politics and social networks: practical and discursive. Starting with an endeavor to problematize the very possibility of politics on social networks, the second, discursive attitude, is investigated. First, argued is the fact that there are two breaks between political action and social networks: the absence of continuity between politics and media, and the agency-structure break. In either case, the intermediary link is discourse, which produces certain subjectivity of a political agent. Next, Foucaldian theory of discourse and subject is applied in order to examine the discursive resources that are used by the user to construct itself as the subject of politics. Finally, two symptomatic examples of medialized political actions on social networks, namely “share if care” and changing the color of the profile photo, are analyzed in attempt to prove that “media” (rather than “political”) component prevails, which reinforces a critical view on political actions on social networks.