“For the moment, I am not F*cking,” I am Tweeting: Platforms of / as Sexuality

This article develops the argument that digital platforms are significantly infused with originary (and unconscious) residues of the sexual. Drawing on Laplancheian conceptualizations of sexuality, I argue that the digital has always been sexual(ised) in itself – a process that precedes and exceeds the erotic or pornographic. For Laplanche, sexuality is constitutive of the human subject as such. Infantile sexuality is shaped and transformed in an enigmatic relation with the caregiver. Drawing on this model as an analogy, I claim that users are drawn to platforms because they (unconsciously) desire to return to infantile sexuality and a holding environment but are disciplined and policed by platforms into adopting modes of adult sexuality that are shaped by ideology and the social. Platforms resemble a child – caregiver relation that is further complicated by other users who, from the perspective of the individual user, occupy the position of siblings. The user – sibling relation is marked by competition as well as moments of care and cooperation. As users work, chat, share, like, and practically live online and via networked objects, their forms of usage mimic, or come close to, the sensual-affective rhythms of sexuality itself

Artificial Intuition in Tech Journalism on AI: Imagining the Human Subject

Artificial intuition (AI acting intuitively) is one trend in artificial intelligence. This article analyzes how it is discussed by technology journalism on the internet. The journalistic narratives that were analyzed claim that intuition can make AI more efficient, autonomous, and human. Some commentators also write that intuitive AI could execute tasks better than humans themselves ever could (e.g., in digital games); therefore, it could ultimately surpass human intuition. Such views do not pay enough attention to biases as well as transparency and explainability of AI. We contrast the journalistic narratives with philosophical understandings of intuition and a psychoanalytic view of the human. Those perspectives allow for a more complex view that goes beyond the focus on rationality and computational perspectives of tech journalism

Alienation and Digital Labour—A Depth-Hermeneutic Inquiry into Online Commodification and the Unconscious

At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986)

“For the moment, I am not F*cking,” I am Tweeting: Platforms of / as Sexuality

This article develops the argument that digital platforms are significantly infused with originary (and unconscious) residues of the sexual. Drawing on Laplancheian conceptualizations of sexuality, I argue that the digital has always been sexual(ised) in itself – a process that precedes and exceeds the erotic or pornographic. For Laplanche, sexuality is constitutive of the human subject as such. Infantile sexuality is shaped and transformed in an enigmatic relation with the caregiver. Drawing on this model as an analogy, I claim that users are drawn to platforms because they (unconsciously) desire to return to infantile sexuality and a holding environment but are disciplined and policed by platforms into adopting modes of adult sexuality that are shaped by ideology and the social. Platforms resemble a child – caregiver relation that is further complicated by other users who, from the perspective of the individual user, occupy the position of siblings. The user – sibling relation is marked by competition as well as moments of care and cooperation. As users work, chat, share, like, and practically live online and via networked objects, their forms of usage mimic, or come close to, the sensual-affective rhythms of sexuality itself

Zwischen Nähe und Distanz: Replik auf Aaron Lahls und Frank Schumanns Rezension zu "Die Mannosphäre: Frauenfeindliche Communitys im Internet"

Jacob Johanssen: Die Mannosphäre: Frauenfeindliche Communitys im Internet. Köln: Herbert von Harlem 2023. 978-3-869-62620-

Social Media and Coronavirus: Paranoid-Schizoid Technology and Pandemic?

This article draws on the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s ‘paranoid-schizoid position’ to discuss some exemplary social media posts about the Coronavirus. I argue that posts often express experiences, thoughts and fantasies in a schematic manner. They reproduce a paranoid-schizoid logic by which particular views on the current crisis are articulated and different ones are negated. The Kleinian framework is supplemented with Lacan’s notion of the Discourse of the Hysteric. I argue that the examples discussed in this article are instances of hysteric modes of relating to an Other (e.g. the expert) that is allegedly withholding important information from the subject. Splitting is amplified by the technological functioning of social media themselves which split users along a paranoid-schizoid dynamic for purposes of surveillance, advertising and profit maximization. I conclude by outlining steps towards the Kleinian ‘depressive position’ both in relation to how we engage with COVID-19 and social media. The depressive position acknowledges both good and bad aspects of a given situation. I further show how it can be supplemented via the Lacanian Discourse of the Analyst which includes a commitment to the limits of knowledge, certainty and prediction

Reconsidering Trauma and Symbolic Wounds in Times of Online Misogyny and Platforms

This article provides an exploratory discussion of the misogynist online incel community and its discourses around mental health. Incels’ discussion of mental health conditions, trauma and victimhood is outlined in relation to Allen Meek’s development of the concept of the symbolic wound. It is argued that incels’ alleged trauma constitutes the construction of a symbolic wound as a marker of group identity as well as a means of shocking and potentially traumatising others. The concept of the symbolic wound is further developed through the psychoanalytic notion of dis/inhibition which shows how incels are torn between modes of desiring and symbolically destroying women. The collective identity of the symbolic wound and its (non)-relation to trauma can thus be more fragile and contradictory than has been discussed in the literature so far

Competing narratives in framing disability in the UK media: a comparative analysis of journalistic representations of facial disfigurement versus practices of self-representations online

By using discourse analysis, this paper compares and contrasts the journalistic coverage of the story of a beauty blogger with facial disfigurement with her blog. On the one hand, we will show the extent to which a self-representational account may align with the journalistic coverage, reinforcing rather than contesting mainstream representations of disability. On the other, we will demonstrate how a person with a disfigurement can use blogging to reclaim her own identity and challenge the medical objectification of her body perpetuated by mainstream media. This research found that rather than being mutually exclusive, journalism and blogging can play a complementary role in shaping the society’s understanding of the complexities and contradictions surrounding disfigurement

Artificial Intuition in Tech Journalism on AI: Imagining the Human Subject

Artificial intuition (AI acting intuitively) is one trend in artificial intelligence. This article analyses how it is discussed by technology journalism on the internet. The journalistic narratives that were analysed claim that intuition can make AI more efficient, autonomous and human. Some commentators also write that intuitive AI could execute tasks better than humans themselves ever could (e.g. in digital games). Therefore, it could ultimately surpass human intuition. Such views do not pay enough attention to biases as well as transparency and explainability of AI. We contrast the journalistic narratives with philosophical understandings of intuition and a psychoanalytic view of the human. Those perspectives allow for a more complex view that goes beyond the focus on rationality and computational perspectives of tech journalism. Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI), artificial intuition, human subject, psychoanalysis, technology journalis