Abstract
Social networking technologies have become a ubiquitous framework for
social interaction, serving to organise much of the individual’s social life. Such
technological structuring affects not merely the individual’s psyche (as a psychotechnics),
it also affects broader aspects of society (as a socio-technics). While
social networking technologies may serve to transform society in positive ways,
such technologies also have the potential to significantly encroach upon and (re)
construct individual and cultural meaning in ways that must be investigated. Erich
Fromm, who psychoanalytically describes humans as a product of their society and
the economic systems within that society, may provide insight into the influence of
social networking technologies in contemporary society. He sees the relationship
between the individual and society as being in a constant state of dynamic change.
Utilising Fromm’s psycho-societal insight, social networking technologies
are shown to conflate and confuse the relation between Thanatos and Eros – the
Thanatos of a lifeless and consumerist agenda-filled mechanisation, and the Eros
associated with social engagement. Thanatos and Eros are tied together via social
networking technologies. This results in, firstly, social networking technologies
functioning predominantly to further capitalist agendas through the monetisation of
these technologies – particularly in terms of linking commodity fetishism and the
foundational social drive of the individual. Secondly, social networking technologies
mechanise human action according to predictable behavioural paths through the
use of these technologies, especially in terms of how socialisation is possible via
these technologies (shaping how platonic and romantic relationships may take place
in the contemporary world). Such a mechanisation of interpersonal engagement
contrasts with Erich Fromm’s assertion that interpersonal relations (vis-à-vis love)
are not “mere emotion”, but rather represent an interpersonal creative capacity and
interplay. Fromm’s psycho-societal insights will show how contemporary individuals
may take independent and responsible rational action to establish accountable and
psychologically beneficial ways of engaging with others through social networking
technologies.