The Spectacle of Online Life offers a groundbreaking exploration of the digital age''s most pressing paradoxes: connection and isolation, democratization and control, authenticity and performance. Edited by Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, Christopher T. Conner, and Matthew N. Hannah, this volume assembles a diverse array of scholars to critically examine how online technologies shape, reflect, and amplify the complexities of modern society. Chapters in the text draw on insights from the Frankfurt School, Situationist International, and contemporary media studies. This collection delves into topics as varied as promotional livestreaming, climate change conspiracy theories, beauty influencer culture, and the role of artificial intelligence in content moderation. As the authors show, digital platforms are a double-edged sword both empowering grassroots movements and reinforcing systemic inequalities.

Autorentext
Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico and author of Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism. Christopher T. Conner is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. **Matthew N. Hannah** is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of Information Studies at Purdue University.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Screens and Spectacles: The New Digital Terrain of Connection and Control
Christopher T. Conner, Matthew N. Hannah, Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo

Chapter 2: Culture Industry, Participatory Industry: How a Lack of Transparency in Social Media Deepens the Postmodern Crisis of Consciousness
Elizabeth Blakey

Chapter 3: Living in the Shop Window: Spectacle, Consumption, and Conflict in Promotional Livestreaming
Lizhen Zhao, Alkim Yalin, and Emily West

Chapter 4: Conspiracy Theories and the Spectacle of Climate Change
Matthew N. Hannah

Chapter 5: Ground Beneath the Echo Chamber: Forms of Life and Existential Needs
Jeremiah Morelock, Gordon C. Chang, and Crystal Lee Ward

Chapter 6: Mass Celebrity and Micro-Spectacle
Charles Thorpe and Sam Smith

Chapter 7: The Ubiquity of Networked Life: A Critical Environmental Analysis
Jessica Pardee and Vincent Serravallo

Chapter 8: Open Access vs. the Prestige Machine
David Arditi

Chapter 9: Critical Theory Foundations of Digital Capitalism: A Critical Political Economy Perspective
Christian Fuchs

Chapter 10: Shoppable Self as Spectacle: Precarious Identity Making of Beauty Influencers in China
Zepeng Zhou

Chapter 11: Online Violence and Radicalization
Matthew Costello and James Hawdon

Chapter 12: The Spectacle of Digital Waste: Spectacular Reassurance Strategies and the Material Impacts of the Digital Data System
Nicholas Baxter

Chapter 13: The Gay Gayze, Reconsidered: Expressions of Inequality on Grindr
Christopher T. Conner

Index

About the Editors and Contributors