The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self: A Savage Journey into the Heart of Digital Cultures - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Donatella Della Ratta is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at John Cabot University, Italy. She specializes in digital media and networked technologies with a focus on the Arab world. 

Geert Lovink is Director of the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, and author of Sad by Design (2019).

Teresa Numerico is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at Roma Tre University, Italy. Her research interests lie at the intersection between philosophy, ethics and politics of technology with a focus on artificial intelligence. 

Peter Sarram is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at John Cabot University, Italy. His work revolves around questions of popular culture, social identities and technology.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

This volume investigates our dissonant and exuberant existence online. As social media users, we know we’re under surveillance, yet we continue to click, like, love and share ourselves online as if nothing was. So, how do we overcome the current online identity regime? Can we overthrow the rule of Narcissus and destroy the planetary middle class subject? In this catalogue of strategies, the reader will find stories on hacker groups, gaming platforms in the occupied territories, art objects, selfies, augmented reality, Gen Z autoethnographies, love and life. The authors of this anthology believe we cannot simply put vanity aside. A rational analysis of platform capitalism is not going to convince the TikTok youngsters nor liberate us from Zuckerbergian indentured servitude. Do we really need to wade through the subjective mud and ‘learn more’ about online aesthetics? The answer is yes.