Nudges, emojis, and memes: Mapping interpassivity theory onto digital civic culture

Abstract

Once lauded for liberating audiences from their passive state by granting voice, the digital public sphere today increasingly resem- bles a cacophony of disjointed voices datafied for the gain of giant tech firms. Instead of bemoaning the co-optation of users’ activity, we might find it timely to reconsider the possibility that users’ passivity might be at stake, the key assumption of interpassivity theory implying a delegation of one’s affective subject position under seeming interactive practices. This article reviews burgeon- ing research on interpassivity and brings it to bear on pervasive phenomena in digital interactive environments: nudges, emojis, and memes. Tracing the artificial canned laughter of the broadcast era to the famous internet adage, Poe’s law, I argue that strategic ambivalence, vitriolic joking, and irony weaponized by far-right online subcultures exploit the interactive nudge logic of social media affordances. The means of expressing authentic feelings afforded by digital media entail a fissure that trades in illusions which users disavow. This explains how surprising phenomena beyond belief, such as “meme magic,” gain symbolic power. The theoretical takeaway upends the key premise of cultural participa- tion theory suggesting that rather than serving as a precondition, relentless interactivity might paradoxically undermine the demo- cratic ethos of participatory culture.