Escaping the Spectacle
In the society of spectacle, everything is about appearance and consumption, just like on social media. Now, do we all have to abandon our smartphones to escape?
Most people do not have enough time and — what is probably more crucial — lack the energy to view every video, news story and post that comes across their timelines, let alone check them for truth. Every day our newsfeeds are flooded with information and our attention span is not getting longer. Deciding whether an Instagram story is worth our time and attention is important. But what is that decision based on?
We move within our own carefully curated social media bubbles. If a specific topic is going viral in our little cosmos, we assume that this is something that concerns a lot of people. In fact, it makes no difference at all whether the content is true or not, merely its reach and visibility determine the value. This becomes especially clear when you think about all the fake news on social media that are obviously not true but still have a huge impact on the political discourse. In an ever-changing, highly subjective society, there is no such thing as one truth for all. Truth was never a stable concept but nowadays it changes depending on how we perceive our reality. In contrast to the old system and its linear distribution in which truth was undivided and universal, in our society it has become a very personal thing that is shaped by someone’s identity and experience. At this point, one can see a paradigm shift that the mass media has initiated and that the invention of the Internet has further accelerated: “from having into appearing”. In our modern society, the appearance of something has a higher value than its actual content. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if news are true, it matters more that they create a spectacle.
Guy Debord was one of the first to recognize and identify this transition. He takes Marxist views on production and consumption a step further and points out how capitalism influences the ways we interact with each other. People buy new things not because they need them but because they change how they appear towards other people. Once they possess these things they immediately crave for new things.
In his book “Society of the Spectacle” (1967) Guy Debord criticizes the western, capitalist consumer societies. He develops a theory around the spectacle and focuses on the fact that “everything (…) has moved away into a representation.” Debord is not the first one to talk about the phenomenon of the spectacle but connecting it with mass media and communication is what makes his ideas unique and even applicable today.
When identifying the transition “from having into appearing” he points out that humans have become spectators who are pursuing “pseudo-needs” that are created and shaped by mass media to maintain the rule of the capitalist economy over all areas of life. In this mere spectacle of a society, humans degenerate into passive spectators who no longer question anything, but only consume. There is no free choice except the choice between different products (you think you choose what you want to see on social media but do you really?). Debord notes that within the spectacle everything becomes a commodity, even the individual itself (we pay with our data and creative labor). Everybody finds their fulfilment in consumption, because everything is superficial and buyable.
Reality disappears completely behind this illusory world of the spectacle which alienates individuals from real life. Real life is substituted by images: everyone is only a cog in the wheel of the capitalist society. “The spectacle is not a collection of images but a social relation among people mediated by images.” That sounds a lot like Debord would have hated Instagram but also had a strangely accurate evil premonition of how social media would dominate our capitalist society.
Debord sees the spectacle as a perfidious technique of ruling or even “ideology par excellence”, because it oppresses individuals without them noticing it. The society of the spectacle represents the seizure of power by the economy and the standstill of history. In essence, nothing changes — everything is just for entertainment. However, the spectacle is not supposed to be the conspiracy of a particular power group, but rather a mechanism of capitalism that keeps itself alive.
The spectacle is ideology itself and how are you going to escape from that? It is crucial to understand — and this is emphasized even more by the fact that Debord developed this theory long before the time of the Internet — that the spectacle is always changing and adapting to its underlying circumstances. Debord is convinced that capitalism has already fulfilled our basic needs like food and shelter and now continues to survive by creating desire for products we don’t need, but only want for the sake of our appearance. Debord offers no solution whatsoever as to how to tackle the spectacle, he only vaguely suggests “self-emancipation”. Does that mean you should throw your smartphone away and delete your social media accounts? I highly doubt it. This technology is way too valuable for our society to just let it waste in the hands of capitalism. Being aware of what is going on, is already a huge step towards escaping alienation and reuniting as a community.
But, escaping the spectacle is not like choosing the right pill and waking up in an unaltered reality. Social Media has commodified our freedom of expression. Everyone who has something to say needs a Twitter account these days, and that’s not a bad thing. What is problematic, however, is that people exploit their own creative labour. Maintaining an active social media account is a full time job, but it is not like you get paid by Twitter. They basically just provide you the platform and commodify our friendships and opinions.
Another major issue, that I would just like to touch on the side, is the question of how social media algorithms are designed. For the average user it is impossible to know based on what criteria they are shown certain content — it might have something to do with previous interactions, it might not. The intentions of the social media companies are clear: encourage users to spend more time on their platforms and fill it with content. That is why algorithms have to be designed so that our desire is never fully satisfied.
Social media can be a creative way to express yourself, to engage in meaningful connection with people and get educated on topics that are beyond your own horizon. However, the technology has to be taken out of the hand of giant corporations in order to build a more empowering, democratic and transparent tool. Since there is no disruptive alternative yet, escaping the spectacle can be facilitated by being aware of the fact that social media algorithms are being trained to get to know our minds, show us exactly what we like and what would make us stay longer on their platforms. They collect information based on our online behavior which can be very useful for us as the algorithm suggests content we might like but it can also make us stay in our own bubble and not be confronted with different views from our own. Debord chose the word spectacle because of its inherent opposition of passive consumers and active players. The crucial step in disrupting the spectacle is therefore to become active and organize yourself.
