JAWS 5 (1) pp.

79–91 Intellect Limited 2019

Journal of Arts Writing by Students

Volume 5 Number 1
© 2019 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jaws.5.1.79_1

Emilie Nunn
The University of Lincoln

Social media as an extension

of Guy Debord’s The Society
of the Spectacle (1967)

Abstract Keywords
The aim of this article is to place Debord’s ‘spectacle’ in direct comparison with social Debord
media. The concept of the spectacle as presented and outlined by Debord in The spectacle
Society of the Spectacle argues ‘All that once was directly lived has become mere alienation
representation’. Drawing from Debord, this article examines whether social media is consumerism
a manifestation of the spectacle in contemporary society. social media
Web 2.0
identity
Debord sees the spectacle as an ideological mechanism that autonomously commodity
controls all life. He criticizes society saturated by mass media and the endless
stream of representations that it in turn lives by. This article aims to investi-
gate, through applying relevant theorist’s works, whether the spectacle is still
relevant for analysing contemporary society today, with particular emphasis
placed on the use of social media. As a product and tool of mass media, social
media can be viewed as an evolution of the mass media of Debord’s era in
1967. The key underlining element of Debord’s critique of mass media was
that it allowed no room for freedom of individuality or thought. Viewers are be
described as merely passive voyeurs.
Drawing from Marxism Philosophy, Debord suggests through the devel-
opment of modern society that authentic social lives are understood as the

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decline of being into having and having into merely appearing, hence his
assertion that ‘all that was directly lived has become mere representation’
(1967: 12).
Debord’s key themes of consumerism and alienation as a response to the
‘spectacular image’ will be identified and verified through their relevance and
applicability within today’s society. Through observing the image within the
platform of social media and applying Debord’s concept of the spectacle, I
will explore the relevance of the critique for contemporary media. In addition,
identity construction and the notion of performance upon the social media
platform will be explored through understanding how individuals react and
use the platform.

Web 2.0
Social media has been defined by Shirky as a tool that ‘increases our ability to
share, to cooperate, with one another, and to take collective action, all outside
the framework of traditional institutions and organizations’ (2008). Social
Media theorist Tim O’Reilly (cited in Fuchs 2013: 34) devised the term ‘Web
2.0’ to describe types of World Wide Web applications, such as social network-
ing sites and image-sharing platforms. O’Reilly argues that Debord’s criticism
of the mass media allows no room for freedom of individuality or thought. The
key characteristics of Web 2.0 highlighted by O’Reilly are described as radi-
cal decentralization, participation instead of publishing, users as contributors
and undetermined user behaviour (O’Reilly cited in Fuchs 2013: 34). These
characteristics can all be interpreted as a positive feature of the social media
platform, allowing users a freedom of expression and communication. Based
on O’Reilly’s concept, Web 2.0 allows for emancipation of viewers from the
hold of the spectacle. A user can now be in control and no longer manipulated
or influenced by the spectacle itself. The individual is able to contribute and
participate in what is consumed on the platform; there exists an individual,
subjective choice.
Through observing Debord’s later work within Comments on the Society of
the Spectacle (Debord 1988) we are able to see a further clarification by Debord
on how the spectacle has manifested itself within an evolving society: ‘Rather
than talk of the spectacle, people often prefer to use the term “media” and by
this they mean to describe a mere instrument, a kind of public service’ (Debord
1988: 6). Debord references the positive notion of how media, and in turn
the spectacle, is viewed by society. The spectacle can be seen as masked and
hidden behind the positive notion of the characteristics of Web 2.0 in terms of
social media being seen as a public service and instrument for social interac-
tion and communication, free from geographical and controlling barriers.
Debord describes the spectacle as a tool for capitalism and an instrument
for distracting and pacifying society, whilst O’Reilly focuses on the freedom
and empowerment that Web 2.0 creates. Debord sees media as a tool in which
the spectacle extends it reach and manipulation where O’Reilly sees Web 2.0
as a breakdown of all barriers, allowing the individual to take back control.
The clear opposing viewpoints of O’Reilly and Debord place the distracting
and pacifying element of the spectacle into question. In analysis of the amal-
gamation of the spectacle, mass media and social media, the characteristics of
the spectacle can be observed and considered. The spectacle can be viewed as
a prescient condemnation of our image-saturated consumer culture. Through
the identification of the characteristics of the spectacle and social media this

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

article argues that through the evolving nature of society and media since the
era of Debord’s theory, a further dimension to the spectacle has been born
through Web 2.0. The creation of Web 2.0 and social media has allowed for a
new outlet in which the spectacle can be evident within society today.

The use of social media

Facebook’s founding mission is ‘to give people the power to share and make
the world more open and connected […] to give everyone the power to create
and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers’ (Facebook Website
2017). This implies that social media allows users to speak without impedi-
ment or confrontation. However, through questioning why and what individu-
als choose to post we are able to identify a clear contradiction to the freedoms
endorsed by social media platforms. It is the motivation of the individual and
the interpretation of the viewer that contradicts this freedom.
Predominantly image-based social media platform Instagram has become
one of the ‘fastest growing social networks of all time’, with ‘10 million new
users every month’ between September 2015 and June 2016 (Murgia 2016).
Created in 2010, Instagram’s motto states that

Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through
a series of pictures allowing you to experience moments in your friends’
lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more
connected through photos.
(Instagram Website 2017)

Their key motivation is to experience others’ lives, to be part of another’s exist-

ence through the instant images that are published.
The Instagram platform has images at its core: to be part of the commu-
nity images have to be shared, posted or viewed. A friend has become an
extension of an individual’s interest and fascination. There is no physical
interaction or contact, allowing friends to be anything from a celebrity to an
object, ‘Instagram has become the home for visual storytelling for everyone
from celebrities, newsrooms and brands, to teens, musicians and anyone with
a creative passion’ (Instagram Website 2017).
The mission statements of both Facebook and Instagram cite connected,
shared and open experience to describe their platforms. They are words that
describe and acknowledge the human desire to be part of something, to be
connected and accepted by others. The optimism that surrounds social media
is open to critique when applying the theory of Debord. Further critiques
such as Fuchs (2013) describe Web 2.0 optimism as uncritical and an ideology
that serves corporate interests. Scholz (in Fuchs 2013) also cites Web 2.0 as a
form of marketing ideology. Debord’s theory of the spectacle highlights the
key problems and issues within contemporary consumer culture through the
deceitful masks in which society functions. Viewing social media as an exten-
sion and a tool for the spectacle acknowledges that social media platforms are
a new form of cultural social revolution on which the spectacle is able to exist.

The role of the visual within social media

The use of imagery within our everyday lives has allowed images to be seen as
authentic, legitimate evidence of an event or a situation. Social media works
alongside this visual representation of everyday life, with images posted on

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the platforms to visually depict emotions, products and daily activities. The
importance of understanding why an image is posted on social media and
the individual’s motivation for doing so is key in drawing a comparison to
Debord’s spectacle. Debord sees the individual as a passive voyeur and argues
against the freedoms of mass media. Understanding an individual’s motiva-
tions will allow a viewpoint to be taken on these freedoms and if the user
is using social media in a passive manner. According to Debord (1967), the
spectacle is often manifested in a visual form. In The Society of the Spectacle
(1967), Debord aims to awaken the spectator who is controlled by the spec-
tacular image. These images are used to feed individuals the ideals of society
and become a mode of consumerism through their ability to sell the viewer
what is held within it.
The commodification of almost every aspect of life upon the social media
platform has meant that authenticity in Debord’s sense has become impossible.
This commodification of life has been described by Debord as the conforming
nature of the spectacle. ‘The spectacle corresponds to the historical moment
at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life’ (Debord
1967: 29). Social media has turned social and everyday life into a commodity
whereby objects and products signify more than just their use. With particu-
lar attention towards social media and users with numerous followers and
friends, these images can be seen to sell a lifestyle. Users post images that
display their homes, recently purchased products and holiday destinations; it
is these images that can be seen to sell or aspire the viewer to acquire what
is portrayed. To reference Debord’s process of the commodity completing its
colonization of social life, this process can be viewed through the images
posted on social media and thus, the claim that spectacle has manifested itself
within the social media platform.
With an audience of 300 million people using Instagram on a daily basis,
with 95 million images published each day (Murgia 2016) the amount of
visual representation of life is vast. How the individual is seen by others is
often their foremost motivation and priority when constructing an image
to be published on social media. The relationship between the image taker
and the viewer is where Debord’s theory of the spectacle and consumerism
can be applied. In the same way as the spectacle is based on deception, the
image on social media is characterized by its use of ideological camouflage.
Social media allows for a visual façade of ‘the outcome and the goal of the
dominant mode of production’ (Debord 1967: 13). The spectacle is a façade
of consumerism; in the same way, social media is the façade of the spectacle,
and social media, consumerism and the spectacle work alongside and within
one another. This facade creates a ‘monopolization of the realm of appear-
ances’ (Debord 1967: 15). All that appears is not as it seems. Debord explains
how the spectacle can blind the individual within its façade. In the same way,
a social media image is based on appearance; the underlying domination of
consumerism can be seen.

Social media as a tool of consumerism

Debord characterized late capitalism before its post-industrial appearance.
The spectacle endorses abundance and over-production. Describing the spec-
tacle as ‘capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image’ (Debord
1967: 24). Debord directly refers to the spectacle as the capitalist system in
visual form.

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

Upon social media, online communities act as powerful routes for organi-
zations able to target their key demographic consumers. The online commu-
nity members all share a common consensus that heightens the desire and
meaning to attain the lifestyle or commodity that is being represented.
Communities such as online fitness groups seek to influence each other and
enforce consensus through their shared goals. Social media has created a
platform on which consumerism and thus, the spectacle, is able to flourish.
Through communities having shared goals and members needing to belong,
members are readymade retailers for consumerism.
Within today’s society, production is increasingly enacted at the site of
consumption, enabling consumption to become productive. Users of social
media produce and consume on the platform itself. Users share recently
purchased products and at that same moment other followers consume it.
The development of Web 2.0 brought about the term ‘prosumption’ (Ritzer and
Jurgenson 2010), whereby the need to understand how consumerism worked
upon the platforms was beginning to be acknowledged. Digitally medi-
ated activity such as social media can be described as prosumption in that
consumers now fuel production or in terms of social media, users now fuel the
content. The term acknowledges that the individual play a role in consumer-
ism, not only at the consumption but also the production.
Marx recognized that social relations are closely bound up within a
productive force, ‘the hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the
steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist’ (in Shaw 1979). Social media
can be compared to the factory as a product of capitalism adapted to further
its agenda; platforms have become marketing tools for organizations to build
relationships with consumers. Debord’s notion of ‘commodity fetishism’
(1967: 29) illustrates the heightened desire for goods and services that can be
seen within society today. The social media platform permits industries and
producers to be masqueraded as individuals. Corporations are able to define
a persona and create a deeper connection of human attachment with their
consumers. Products are able to have a human extension through the user
who posts the image. This human extension allows other individuals to find
familiarity and aspire to conform to the attributes of the product.
Placing social media as an extension of the spectacle, Debord had not
predicted the ability for the spectacle to generate from itself. The spectacle’s
advancement, initially viewed by Debord as top-down manipulation of desire
and perception by the established order, has now become liberated through
the pattern of communication and influence through social media. The plat-
form now allows users to feed their own images and representations into the
spectacle’s domain. Users both produce and consume information. Viewing
users as ‘prosumers’ (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010) user-generated content
assumes and follows the original standard of the spectacle through reproduc-
ing its product capacity and consumer reach.
The main characteristic of social media is that it is ‘spreadable media’
(Jenkins et al. 2009); ‘consumers play an active role in “spreading” content’. It
is argued that ‘spreadable’ media ‘empowers’ consumers and ‘makes them an
integral part’ of a commodity’s success (Jenkins et al. 2009). Ironically, individ-
uals can now be seen to proliferate the spectacle, using social media as their
tool. Users have become a form of power of the spectacle. Individuals have
become personifications of the spectacle itself. Individuals, through liking
and sharing images, heighten the desire and aspiration of commodities and
products. The commodification of almost every aspect of life upon the social

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media platform has meant that authenticity in Debord’s sense has become
impossible. This commodification of life has been described by Debord as the
conforming nature of the spectacle. ‘The spectacle corresponds to the histori-
cal moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social
life’ (Debord 1967: 29). Social media has turned social life into a commodity
whereby objects signify more than just their use.
The spectacle reduces reality to an endless supply of commodities whilst
encouraging us to focus on appearances. For Debord, this constitutes as
an unacceptable ’degradation’ (1967: 16) of our lives. In terms of the image
within social media, the reading of an image and the need for appearance
show a correlation to the view of Debord. The spectacle places emphasis
on ownership and materialism and how the promise of both is only truly
fulfilled by the gaze of society, rather than through acquirement alone. Social
media provides this gaze and in the context of today, the gaze of others is
even more present.

The creation of self on social media

Within The Society of the Spectacle (1967), the spectator emerges as a paradoxi-
cal figure. If a spectator is unaware of the motives within a social media image
that they view they may act or be viewed as self-contradictory. Debord criticizes
the spectator as an ignorant passive voyeur of seductive images. The passive
spectator, who takes pleasure in images whilst ignorant to their production
and their connotation, displays their own alienation and self-dispossession.
If individuals are unable to think for themselves they become slaves to the
spectacular image, unable to access freedom of thought or acquire their own
personal identity.
Social media images are often published with subjectivity and a social
desire of acceptance and affirmation to achieve and fit within the consensus
of the community to which they belong and follow. The curated and staged
images published on social media hold within them the deceit highlighted
by Debord in reference to mass media and the spectacle. The viewer often
presumes that what is portrayed within the frame is genuine and the reality
of the creator. The viewer only needs to passively gaze at the image to then
presume the lifestyle that extends from it. It is this presumption of authenticity
that questions the ability of social media and the image to sculpt individuals’
lives and identities.
User-generated content within social media can be seen to have mone-
tized social relations and personal opinions and emotions. Users’ internal
thoughts and experiences are now forms of commodities published upon the
platform. Social media has become a comprehensively mediated and curated
way of life, whereby the user has the ability to create a virtual reality, strategi-
cally selecting how people perceive themselves through what is shared.
French philosopher Roland Barthes wrote within his text Camera Lucida, ‘I
instantaneously make another body for myself, I transform myself in advance
into an image […] the photograph is the advent of myself as other’ (1980: 10).
Barthes, similar to Debord, pre-dates social media but their theories can aid
understanding and answer the claim of social media becoming an extension
of the spectacle. Barthes questions the nature and essence of photography and
its ability to create another persona and identity. Although his work is dissimi-
lar to Debord, his theory understands Debord’s key concepts of representation
and the ability to create a mythical version of the self.

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

Barthes touches on the ability of an image to create another persona. The

image is the beginning of another self. Through allowing the user to construct
and curate their identity, social media permits an individual to possess many
versions of their self, whether true or false. The relation to a user’s true reality
is problematized within social media due to the enablement of misrepresen-
tation. Debord describes this world as ‘apprehended in a partial way, reality
unfolds in a new generality as a pseudo-world apart, solely as an object of
contemplation’ (1967: 12). Social media can be seen as a reflection of Debord’s
pseudo world.
The theory put forward by Goffman in The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life (1959) explores the concept of identity creation. Although the text
predates Debord and social media, the underlying framework is still valid for
today’s contemporary society. The fundamental element of the text is the pres-
entation of self to belong. Goffman argues that individuals deliberately render
behaviours to gain acceptance from others, where ‘society is organized on the
principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has
a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate
way’ (1959: 13). Goffman continues to state ‘an individual who implicitly or
explicitly signifies that he has certain social characteristics ought in fact to be
what he claims he is’ (1959: 13). Goffman analyses interpersonal interaction
and how individuals perform to project a desirable image.
To place Goffman in dialogue with Debord is to highlight the concern
over how the self has become externally defined within society. As previously
suggested, Web 2.0 provides individuals with a platform on which they are
able to perform and present various identities and versions of self. The physi-
cal detachment between users enables deceit to occur. In terms of Debord,
this deceit is evident within the spectacle itself, where it ‘finds its highest
expression in the world of the autonomous image, where deceit deceives itself’
(1967: 12).
The fundamental characteristic of social media is its ability to juxtapose life
through playing with an individual’s virtual and physical reality. Authenticity
of the virtual world holds no barriers to its resemblance on the individual’s
physical reality. Virtual reality is based on perception and representation. All
that is published on social media is a representation of an individual; all that
is viewed of the image is based on perception. Users of the platform, through
their use of imitation and representation of existence, become further removed
from reality; virtual lives have become an abstraction of physical, lived reality.
Abstraction often implies a sense of freedom from restrictions. If virtual
reality implies freedom from the physical world, individuals seek to inhabit
the virtual world for a reason. The general consensus of social media is the
freedom of thought and communication, a platform for self-publication of
identity and individuality and means of social interaction. In relation to the
spectacle and Debord’s text, this consensus masks the truth of the spectacle, a
camouflage in which the spectacle survives and evolves.

Alienation
One of the consequential factors of the spectacle is its ability to alienate every-
one from life itself. Debord states ‘the spectacle’s function in society is the
concrete manufacture of alienation’ (1967: 23). Alienation, a defining charac-
teristic of capitalism, was developed by Marx (1974) to reveal the human activ-
ity that lies behind the seemingly impersonal forces that dominate society.

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Its origin is commodity fetishism, the belief that commodities have enough
human value that they can govern the activity of human beings. Key to Marx’s
theory is an individual’s ‘Species Being’ (1974: 327–28). The ‘species being’ and
essence of a human being is to interact and transform the world consciously
and freely to meet their needs; if this is obstructed, an individual will become
disconnected and thus alienated (Marx 1974).
Individuals understand existence and society through the images produced
and distributed on a daily basis. Debord summarizes the spectacle as ‘capital
accumulated to the point where it becomes image’ (1967: 24). Through our
image-driven culture, images now saturate individual’s physical and mental
environments, allowing the individual to manifest into the definition of which
the image represents. Individuals are able to sculpt their appearances, homes
and lifestyles to replicate the images on social media. Within this process
an individual’s ability to define their existence and ‘species being’ is further
removed, resulting in alienation. An individual is unable to locate the true self
when all that is prominent within everyday life is performed upon the social
media platform in the form of an abstract reality. Objective, physical reality is
an essential part of developing a meaningful perspective of the world. When
an individual is unable to distinguish between their physical, objective reality
and the virtual subjective world, alienation follows. Social media and the spec-
tacle can be argued as a form of alienation through their constant interplay of
virtual and physical realities.
Debord cites the overall effect of the spectacle as a ‘downgrading of being
into having that’s left a stamp on all human endeavours’ (1967: 16). The spec-
tacle, in the same identical way as social media, forms a parallel relationship to
an individual’s social life. Explained by Debord as ‘social life is completely taken
over by the accumulated products of the economy’ that ‘entails a generalised
shift from having to appearing’ (1967: 16), the spectacle and social media have
a clear link in that social media images are based on appearances and, often,
desirable products and lifestyles. The dependency on the spectacle and thus,
social media in construing identity, alienates individuals from their individual-
ity and ‘species being’. Debord describes the viewing of a spectacular image
as an ‘unthinking activity’ (1967: 23). Debord proposes that such images hold
within them ‘images of need proposed by the dominant system’ (1967: 23).
In relevance to social media, such spectacular images form the basis of social
media platforms. Debord goes on to state the effect on the identity of self
through viewing such images as ‘the less he understands his own existence
and own desires’ (1967: 23). This thesis from Debord provides a clear implica-
tion of the spectacle on identity and the formation of self.
The extension of the spectacle is proliferated within its expansion onto
the platform of social media. According to Debord, the ‘spectacular image
has become autonomous where ‘deceit deceives itself’ (1967: 12); society has
been conditioned to view images as a form of freedom of expression and
authenticity, without the need to question the objective truth. Users of social
media view spectacular images on a daily basis, images that are contem-
plated and viewed as a recreational activity. Images are shared and gazed
at without consideration for the means and powers from where the image
was derived. Debord describes the spectacle as a ‘concrete inversion of life,
and, as such, the autonomous movement of non-life’ (1967: 12). Daily life has
been upturned; we no longer need to be awake within our physical reality,
provided that we are perceived and noticed within our abstract virtual reality:
the social media platform.

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

Social media is owned by higher agencies, profit-driven corporations; who

are their workers? Debord states ‘workers do not produce themselves: they
produce a force independent of themselves’ (1967: 23). It can be argued that
the users of social media are the workers; they both spread and consume the
content. Users arguably do not create content themselves; they share content
that has been placed there by higher organizations, by ‘a force independent
of themselves’ (Debord 1967: 23). In terms of Marx’s theory, the more time
the user spends on social media, the greater the reach of the spectacle and
consumerism, the more alienated the user becomes from his or her physical
reality and sense of self.

Identity as commodity
Through the use of social media, physical experiences and social relations are
now only represented. Who an individual is on the platform is only a representa-
tion of their self. Users are isolated viewers and their lives have become based on
representations. In Debord’s first summative thesis of the spectacle, ‘Everything
that was directly lived has moved away into a representation’ (1967: 12),
Debord acknowledges modern society whereby users of social media observe
the products of social life. Debord states the spectacle as not just a ‘collection
of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by
images’ (1967: 12). Social relationships and interactions are the foundations of
social media. The key element of social media platforms such as Instagram is
its use of imagery as a means of communication. Viewing is a routine human
activity, an activity that requires selection, comparison, interpretation and
connection creation. This activity is the foundation of social media and the
key processes that are illustrated on the platforms. Rancière describes that this
viewing is an indication of ‘individuals plotting their own paths in the forest of
things, acts and signs that confront or surround them’ (2009: 16). In line with
Debord’s theory, what if this path was obstructed? How does this affect an
individual’s identity and creation of self? Debord gestures to the manipulat-
ing nature of the spectacle, ‘the individual’s gestures are no longer his own,
but rather those of someone else who represents them to him’ (1967: 23). The
individual is not free; their actions are subconsciously controlled by the spec-
tacle itself. Users of social media are permitted to follow their icons, individu-
als who are controlled by the spectacle itself. These individuals represent and
communicate the ideals of the spectacle, inciting the notion that their identity is
desirable and obtainable through acquiring and aspiring to certain commodities.
Michael Foucault, within Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michael
Foucault (Foucault 1988), provides an awareness that can aid understanding of
how social media can directly affect the individual. Although Foucault’s texts
predate social media, his study of social conditioning and identity formation in
relation to power is pertinent to social media. Seen from Foucault’s perspective,
social media is more than a vehicle for just the sharing of information. Social
media is a form of identity formation through the need to create an online
persona. Sharing is the foundation of the platforms. To create an online version
of self an individual must choose which information or content to share with
others. This process is a form of performance, a performative act of visibility, of
identity creation. Through sharing content on social media individuals in effect
perform to other users. Users honour the identity that users create by shar-
ing or ‘liking’ a published image. Sharing online is not only a matter of self-
affirmation and self-creation but a desire to empower and inform.

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Erving Goffman within The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)

presents useful frameworks on which identity formation is explored.
Goffman’s analysis converges with Debord through the identification of new
processes of self-construction within today’s advanced capitalist society. To
place Goffman in dialogue with Debord is to identify their concerns over how
the self has become externally defined within consumer capitalism. Goffman’s
‘dramaturgical perspective’ summarizes the basis of his work that individu-
als ‘perform’ to project a desirable image to others to gain social acceptance.
Although Goffman’s text predates social media, the underlying framework is
still applicable today, through the premise that individuals alter and stylize
their behaviour before others. The dramaturgical perspective refers to ‘front
stage’ and ‘back stage’ behaviours; Goffman touches on the premise of social
media and an individual’s curated virtual reality. Within a ‘front stage’ area, an
individual is conscious of being observed by an audience; as a result behav-
iour will be altered to observe certain rules and social conventions. The ‘back
stage’ area requires no performance as there is no audience. Jonathon Brown
refers to this performance as ‘self presentation’ (1998: 162). In the same way
that an individual operates within two realities of the virtual and the physi-
cal, Goffman’s framework can be acknowledged as proof that an individual
subjectively chooses their social media identity. There are arguments that
Goffman’s work requires remodelling to accommodate societies technological
updates (Arundale 2010: 33–54); however, Miller (1995) explains that the elec-
tronic interaction of social media is a natural extension of Goffman’s proposal.
Papacharissi (2011) draws a link with online identity and Goffman’s
approach of self-presentation (1959) through identifying an individual’s abil-
ity to control their identity online through what is conveyed to others. Lee et
al. (2008) cited that the primary motive for presenting the self online was to
convey a desired image of self, a desirable, idealistic image that in reference to
Debord is an image of ‘mere representation’ (Debord 1967: 12).
The motive of creating a desired version of self hinders individuals’
true selves to be embraced and accepted by others. Goffman positions the
performer as able to enforce the strategy of ‘audience segregation’ (1959:
137–40). This process enables the performer to act and control his or her
personality in different ways dependent on his or her audience. This abil-
ity allows the performer to connect with his or her audience and create an
intimate experience that they feel is only between them. The performer must
believe in their role to convince their audience. According to Debord the
more absorbed society becomes in the spectacle and its commodities, the less
autonomy we have over ourselves (1967: 23). As both viewers and consumers
of the spectacle, our identity is formed externally by another who represents
us to ourselves. Upon social media, individuals are able to follow celebrities
and influential people who are outside of their social boundary. Such users are
able to offer insights to achieving their desirable lifestyles through the depic-
tion of commodities. This commodification of life fosters the delusion of self-
realization and contentment through commodity consumption. Commodities
have become codes and symbols that represent individuals’ identities.

Conclusion
The research question of whether social media is an extension of Guy Debord’s
The Society of the Spectacle (1967) has been tested throughout this article. A
clear link has been identified between social media and Debord’s concept of

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

the spectacle. This identification has provided an update to Debord’s ideas in

formulating what can be viewed as an emergence of a new stage of the specta-
cle within social media. The technological advancements within contemporary
society over the last decade have created a new destination for social interac-
tion and communication. Society has proclaimed the social media platforms
as freedom of individuality, void of geographical and social barriers. By placing
social media directly alongside the spectacle highlights the implications and
consequences of social media usage in terms of the individual, identity forma-
tion and their awareness of self. The spectacle and its characteristics, as identi-
fied by Debord, have been used as a form of measure throughout the article,
highlighting not only the same characteristics seen within social media but also
provided a contrasting view against the positive proclamations of the platform.
The prevailing and developed thought, which has been developed
throughout the article, is the notion that the individual himself or herself can
be viewed as a manifestation of the spectacle. As previously highlighted, social
media is founded upon human interaction and communication. Social media
is ‘spreadable media’ (Jenkins et al. 2009); individuals participate within its
content and distribution. To place social media as an extension of the spec-
tacle, the platform needs to hold within it the characteristics of the specta-
cle itself: consumerism, commodity fetishism, alienation (Debord 1967: 39).
These characteristics have been identified as embodied within social media.
The article now poses a further question towards the individual’s position
within society and their effect on the manifestation and evolution of the spec-
tacle. Debord stated that his thesis was ‘written with deliberate intention of
doing harm to spectacular society’ (1992). He intended to awaken the viewer,
to encourage the individual to question the society in which they inhabit. This
article intends a similar proclamation.

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Suggested Citation
Nunn, E. (2019), ‘Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society
of the Spectacle (1967)’, JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students, 5:1,
pp. 79–91, doi: 10.1386/jaws.5.1.79_1

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 Social media as an extension of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

Contributor details
After recently graduating from the University of Lincoln with a first-class BA
Hons in contemporary lens media, Emilie is now studying for an MA in fine
art. Working as a fine art photographer, her practice is often informed through
her theoretical discourse. Often dealing with socially conscious subjects with
the individual placed at the core, Emilie seeks to question and explore how
reality and digital worlds co-exist within today’s society.
Contact: The University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, LN6 7TS, UK.
E-mail: emm@emmnunn.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5474-7386

Emilie Nunn has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was
submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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