Graduate Studies
First Advisor
Casey R. Kelly
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Communication Studies
Date of this Version
8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Citation
A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Major: Communication Studies
Under the supervision of Professor Casey R. Kelly
Lincoln, Nebraska, August 2024
Abstract
Imagine a world where the most powerful leader is a wellness guru that runs an elaborate church with millions of followers. The guru is so powerful that everyone believes they can read minds and make ordinary people rich and famous. The guru controls forms of communication, media channels, consumer tastes, and what people eat, drink, say, and even think. What if this guru was not human but actually an algorithm? Does this sound like the plot of a science fiction novel? I argue that this scenario is closer to reality than most will admit. In this project, readers encounter a strange argument that reflects the strangeness of our postindustrial time: TikTok's social media application functions as a control society assemblage of digital psychopolitics that steers human thought into performing excessive immaterial labor, creating conditions of auto-exploitation. At the heart of this argument is rhetorical praxis. By demystifying psychopolitical control societal logic, I reveal the critical role rhetoric plays in motivating users to produce and consume excessively. Rhetorical intervention transforms the digital ecosystem of TikTok into a church of followers seeking to heal through techniques of care for the self. However, the commodification of techniques of the self recasts essential self-care logics such as authenticity and transparency into psychopolitical technologies, where confessional discourse exploits the self rather than healing the self. In three chapters, using feminist and Foucauldian critique, I explain what drives humans to perform self-exploitation, become devotees to a digital site that facilitates self-exploitation, and the implications of such a fanatic religion.
Advisor: Casey R. Kelly
Recommended Citation
Gillespie-Hoffman, Samantha L., "Praying to TikTok, Seeking the Self: How Rhetoric Reveals and Conceals the World’s Most Powerful Guru of the Postindustrial Age" (2024). Dissertations and Doctoral Documents from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–. 168.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissunl/168
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Continental Philosophy Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Infrastructure Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Media Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Welfare Commons, Transpersonal Psychology Commons
Comments
Copyright 2024, Samantha L. Gillespie-Hoffman. Used by permission