Social Media, the Self, and the Search for Truth: An Application of Pragmatist Theory

• In Event: 3483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 11. The Construction and Production of Knowledge

Abstract

How does social media help or hamper the discovery of truth and the development of the self? This paper begins with an exposition of pragmatist epistemology, with special attention on Charles Peirce’s thought, to show how truth-seeking is an inherently social endeavor. It then discusses pragmatist understandings of the “self,” with additional insights from Erving Goffman, Charles Horton Cooley, and Thorstein Veblen, and applies these insights to various social media interactions and phenomena. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ambivalent consequences of social media for self-development and socially oriented truth-seeking. While social media opens new possibilities for self-expression and gaining knowledge, its capitalist underpinnings, together with a lack of public trust, conspire to exploit human desires for social interaction and pleasure.

Author

• Audra Nakas Dugandzic, University of Notre Dame