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This lecture cycle aims to present the philosophical aspects of analysing social media. It focuses on principal
philosophical categories as they become valid and relevant points of view in a better understanding of the role and
importance of social media in our contemporary lives. Among these categories, we will discuss the notions of
reality, temporality, subjectivity, and intentionality, but also provide interpretations of particular phenomena of social
networks: selfies, scrolling, memes, feeds, etc. In short, the goal is to provide a more philosophically informed
insight into the specific experience of social media, into the existential, anthropological, and ethical backdrop of
the prevalent means of spending free time in the 21st century.
Last update: Balíková Zdeňka, Mgr. (10.12.2024)
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The course will be concluded with a closed questions test based on your choice of readings from the list of readings below. The test will include questions for all the readings, but you don't need to either read all the readings or answer all the questions. The full list of readings includes 20 short texts (chapters, individual papers, etc.) and each of the readings will be awarded with a maximum of 3 points. Out of the maximum possible 60 points you could achieve if you read all the readings and correctly answered all the test questions, you will only need to score: 10 points for a grade 3 15 points for a grade 2 20 points for a grade 1. Conservatively, you should only need to read around 5 out of the 20 readings to pass the test. There will be three test dates. The test dates will be finalized towards the end of the teaching part of the semester (late April, early May). The test dates will be spread across the exam period (May-June). There will not be additional test dates. Should you fail the test, you will get the option to get re-examined orally. The oral exam (only available for those who fail the test) will be again based on your choice of readings. ----------------------------------------------- List of readings (updated for each individual lecture): Lecture 1, Introduction: Mannheim, Karl (1960), Ideology and Utopia. An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge Publishing. Section IV (Utopian Mentality), Chapter 1: Utopia, Ideology, and the Problem of Reality, pp. 173-184. Floridi, Luciano (2015), The Onlife Manifesto. Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era. Springer publishing. Introduction and The Onlife Manifesto, pp. 1-13. Lecture 2-3, A Short Critical History of Social Media: van Dijck, José (2013), The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford University Press. Chapter 1, Engineering Sociality in a Culture of Connectivity, pp. 3-23. Winner, Langdon (1986), The Whale and the Reactor. A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1, Technologies as Forms of Life, pp. 3-18. Lecture 4, Topology of the Cyberspace: Eco, Umberto (1996), "From Internet to Gutenberg", Lecture Presented by Umberto Eco at Columbia University, New York: The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. http://www.goodwin.ee/ekafoto/tekstid/Eco%20Umberto%20-%20From%20Internet%20to%20Gutenberg.pdf Lecture 5-6, Temporality of Scrolling: Jameson, Fredric (2003), "The End of Temporality", Critical Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Summer 2003), pp. 695-718. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1964), "The Film and the New Psychology" in Sense and non-sense. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, pp. 48-59. Marek, Jakub (2023), “The impatient gaze: on the phenomenon of scrolling in the age of boredom”, Semiotica, vol. 2023, no. 254, pp. 107-135. Lecture 7, Memes and the Participatory Culture of Social Media: Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Oxford: OUP, 1989, chapter 11 "Memes: The New Replicators", pp. 189-201. Shifman, Limor, Memes in Digital Culture, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2014, Chapter 4 "Defining Internet Memes", pp. 37-54. de Certeau, Michel, The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988,, Chapter 12 "Reading as Poaching", pp. 165-176. Lecture 8, Algorithmic Desire, Mimesis, and the Other on Social Media: Flisfeder, Matthew, Algorithmic Desire. Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2021, part of "Introduction", pp. 3-13. Eco, Umberto, Apocalypse Postponed, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1994, Chapter 1 "Apocalyptic and Integrated Intellectuals: Mass Communications and Theories of Mass Culture", pp. 17-35. Kierkegaard, Søren, Two Ages: A Literary Review, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978, excerpts from part III, Section "The Present Age", pp. 70-85 (starting with "In contrast to the age of revolution..."). Lecture 9, Attention, Distraction, and What Lies Beyond Brain Rot: Gazzaley, Adam & Rosen, Larry D., The Distracted Mind. Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, Cambridge MA.: The MIT Press, 2016, Chapter 1 "Interference", pp. 3-17. Mouzelis, Nicos, “Self and Self–Other Reflexivity: The Apophatic Dimension”, European Journal of Social Theory, 13(2), pp. 271-284. Further Reading I am offering more reading options covering at least to some extent a few of the topics we did not have time to discuss in class: Cambre, Maria-Carolina & Lavrence, Christine, Towards a Sociology of Selfies. The Filtered Face, London: Routledge, 2023, Chapter 3 "This Is Not a Like: Selfies as Social Practice", pp. 38-53. Marek, Jakub, "Selfhood and Simulacra: On the Phenomenon of Snapchat Dysmorphia", Filosofický časopis, Special Issue 2023/1, pp. 67-88. Dreyfus, Hubert L., "Kierkegaard on the Internet: Anonymity vs. Commitment in the Present Age", Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 1991, pp. 96-109. Borgmann, Albert, Crossing the Postmodern Divide, Chicago–London, University of Chicago Press, 1991, Chapter 4 "Hypermodernism", pp. 78-97. Last update: Marek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (29.05.2025)
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February 27, Introduction: Philosophy of Social Media as the "Discipline That Involves Creating Concepts" March 6, A Short Critical History of New Technologies March 13, Topology of Cyberspace March 20, Temporality of Social Media and the Experience of Time in Scrolling March 27, The "Real" in TikTok Reels: Phenomenology of User-Generated Content April 3, Memes and the Problem of Why We (Don’t) Get Them April 10, The Technology of Attention and Distraction April 17, Lacan, Weil, and the Somnambulic Reality of Social Media April 24, On Curating Oneself on Social Media May 15, Ethics of Social Media May 22, Test Last update: Marek Jakub, Mgr., Ph.D. (26.02.2025)
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