{"product_id":"9781543685565","title":"Filling the Void","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFilling the Void\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about how the cultures and psychology of social media use fit within a broader landscape of life under capitalism. It argues that social media use is often a psychological response to the need for pleasure and comfort that results from the stresses of life under postmodern capitalism rather than being a driver of new behaviours, as newer technologies are often said to be. Both the explosive growth of social media and the corresponding reconfiguration of the web from an information-based platform into an entertainment-based one are far more easily explained in terms of the subjective psychological experience of their users as capitalist subjects seeking 'depressive hedonia', the book argues. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFilling the Void\u003c\/i\u003e also interrogates the role of social media networks, designed for private commercial gain, as part of a de facto public sphere. Both the decreasing subjective importance of factual media and the ways in which the content of the time line are quietly manipulated - often using labour in the developing world and secret algorithms - have potentially serious implications for the capacity of social media users to query or challenge the seeming reality offered by the established hegemonic order. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliance Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47016758575344,"sku":"9781543685565","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781543685565_p0.jpg?v=1763749738","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781543685565","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}