Internationale Zeitschrift für Schul- und Kognitionspsychologie
Offener Zugang

Abstrakt

Commodification of Culture, the Frankfurt School and Instagram

Aun Ali*

There is still a lot of research to be done on the effect of social media on society in general and on individuals in particular. Social media platforms are a kind of network platforms where users interact with each other and use the platform for various purposes. On February 4, 2004 Facebook was launched, it marked the start of a new kind of socialization, which was then specialized in other media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, to name the most prominent of them. This essay looks at the changes brought about by Instagram on society through the lens of the Frankfurt School critique. The concepts of alienation, homogeneity and authenticity are extracted from critical theory for the purpose of critically analyzing the social impact of the widespread Instagram use on public and private space. It is presupposed in this essay that we live in the era of late-capitalism where technology is not seen as an exception to the global order that could liberate us from the throes of pathologies arising from capitalism, it is the most advanced stage of capitalism where exploitation is technically more advanced than before. Hence, it is concluded that social media, like Instagram, is a catalyst in the capitalist process that provides the means to achieve its end more efficiently.