The Idea of Twitter Following

Not only the origin but also the end or the purpose seems irrelevant to the idea of following in the age of the digital reproducibility of social and political relations. Traditionally, trailing a master-guide helped the apprentices to achieve a particular goal: for instance, to increase their knowledge or to improve their skills. Some of the West's emblematic narratives, such as The Divine Comedy where Dante and his readers both literally and figuratively follow Virgil through the circles of the Inferno (as well as the Purgatory) and Beatrice through the spheres of Heaven, gave voice to the master-apprentice relation. No matter how lengthy they were, these journeys had an end that corresponded to the accomplishment of concrete objectives.

Compare this to following someone or something on Twitter or Facebook. Unlike goal-oriented - and, therefore, terminal - apprenticeships, these relations do not have an inherent end, unless for whatever reason you decide to terminate them, hitting the "unfollow" button. In their open-endedness, they imitate life, which has neither a guide nor a final outcome because death is not its culmination but rather an interruption.

"It is necessary to know how to follow others, so as to emancipate oneself from this somewhat subservient relation... yet [with] digital following... we are drawn along, more or less haphazardly, by whatever is 'trending' at the moment."

But, like human living itself, following and learning are not purely passive behaviours. It is necessary to know how to follow others, so as to emancipate oneself from this somewhat subservient relation. And yet, digital following precludes the active component of this social phenomenon, as we are drawn along, more or less haphazardly, by whatever is "trending" at the moment. The more we practically follow others, the less we know how to follow, or what following even means.

Still, it is relatively easy to reconcile a following devoid of distinct leadership and goals with the Western ideology of individualism. Social networks create the illusion of a community free of conformism: after all, you can choose exactly who you wish to follow, just as consumers are able to exercise their right to purchase this or that commodity on the market. The sum total of what you follow is supposed to be the expression of your personality, of your individual tastes, styles, and preferences. These, however, are not exempt from the logic of the market, let alone of marketing, which is why the most massive followings gather around those figures that are most commodified, ie, pop stars.

The existence of followers gets entangled with the digital lives of those they follow, furnishing evidence of cathexis and affective attachment. What counts here is the possibility of influence over the followers, not this or that particular instance of imitation. Potentiality is, indeed, the capital of social networks. Facebook stocks have made their debut on Nasdaq, where one will have a chance to trade in digital potentiality itself.  The idea of following in the age of Twitter will come into its own; it will mean, invariably, "Follow us on the stock exchange!"
Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. He is the author of The Event of the Thing: Derrida's Post-Deconstructive Realism (2009), Groundless Existence: The Political Ontology of Carl Schmitt (2010) and numerous articles in phenomenology, political philosophy, and environmental thought. His most recent book, Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life will be published later this year. His website is michaelmarder.org.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.