The role of the agency t ole of the agency to overcome alienation in social come alienation in social networking platforms: A self-reported phenomenological investigation

Abstract

People are increasingly adhering to social networking platforms (SNP), and such adhesion is often thoughtless, which makes them alienate data, actions, and decisions to tech giants. The prevalence of the socio-psychological approach to alienation has led to the emergence of “victimism” or supremacism in society, phenomena that reinforce a tradition of emphasis on the role of the structure in defending the individual against external forces. Adopting a specific perspective for alienation of agency, i.e., the extent to which an individual is free to act and is responsible for her/his actions, this study discusses what happens when someone chooses to terminate her/his participation in a large SNP. This theoretical-empirical manuscript is grounded on the author’s phenomenological experience and his subjective perceptions regarding being out of the WhatsApp network (nowadays, the main SNP instance in the world). The findings offer initial evidence to validate the proposed IT artifact lifecycle conceptual model and suggest the metaphor "digital near-death experience” (DNDE) as suitable for characterizing the feelings of near-death experience in digital spacetime. Theoretical implications and a research agenda are also proposed.