The Kardashian Moment: Hashtag, Selfie and the Broken Internet

Abstract

The article focuses on a hashtags as a tool of networked culture and networked social move-ments, and – at the same time – on self-expression phenomenon of a selfie. Although todayhashtags, in particular, can been seen as a frequently used weapon in information wars and a tool ofpropaganda 2.0, seen from historical perspective, this very tool aligns itself first and foremost withemancipatory forces in the Internet history. These forces, expressed in A Declaration of the Indepen-dence of Cyberspace and in participatory ideals of Web 2.0 are now in withdrawal.As the Internet is now in a peculiar development phase, ruled by the logic of surveillance capital-ism, those early ideals of free speech and exchange of ideas are now overshadowed by a “darkeningof the digital dream (Shoshana Zuboff).The central argument suggests that the “Kardashian moment” on the one hand, and OccupyWallstreet, on the other hand, constituted a point in time where new media affordances and socialphenomena were aligned. At the same time, both hashtag and selfie can be viewed as a response tothe betrayalof individualization processes started in the 1960s, then carried on and amplified by theearly Internet, and in the end commodified by the growing Internet giants and established structuresof power.