Journaling into the void - TikTok's eudaimonic 'web-weaving' and its digital practises

  • “Together, the CME framework encourages social justice, inclusivity, and a more well-rounded approach to research.” ⤴️
  • “advocates for existentialism’s ability to address “the human predicament” of the disparity between one’s current and ideal selves (p. 10), because it uniquely recognizes that “both [current and ideal selves] are simultaneously defining characteristics of human nature. Neither can be repudiated; they can only be integrated”” ⤴️
  • “presents humankind as agentic, naturally driven to self-improve, and fundamentally good (or at the very least, “neutral”) (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.-a; Maslow, 1962, p. 181; Rogers, 1964).” ⤴️
  • “humanistic psychology possesses an interpretivist, holistic epistemology that focuses on the non-observable and subjective aspects of human existence (Friedman, 2008; Leontiev, 2014). Examples include cultural backgrounds, social identities, values, interactions in her social environment, and interpretations of previous events (Joseph, 2021; Rogers, 1961). Third, the ultimate goal of humanistic psychology is to help individuals overcome the gap between their current and ideal selves” ⤴️
  • “humanistic psychology has received criticism for its “uncritical exaggerated faith and confidence” in humankind” ⤴️
  • “positive psychology’s guise of impartiality masks its hegemonic politics behind what Joseph calls a “language of positivity.” It “implicitly condones ideas about deficit and dysfunction” that place the onus on individuals for failing to successfully cope with systemic issues, rather than addressing such issues or advocating for humans’ inherent value (p. 9). In other words, positive psychology’s toxic positivity upholds “demands of conservative ideologies,” namely individualism and the ruling class’ dominance over and manipulation of the working class (p. 7).” ⤴️
  • “humanistic psychology rejects rigidly clinical models that disempower treatment-seeking individuals, ignore social inequalities, or promote hegemonic capitalist culture.” ⤴️
  • “the slideshows explicitly and frequently reject the conservative ideologies of individualism and productivity.” ⤴️
  • “Maurer et al. write (2023): While personal growth is located within the individual, it is not an inherently individual process—it is fundamentally embedded in and influenced by other people. For that reason, for growth to occur—in an individual who is willing to engage in the growth process—the individual must have a supportive, psychologically safe environment. (p. 3)” ⤴️
  • “the facilitation of the personal growth process is at least somewhat contingent on privilege, as socioeconomic position shapes access to resources” ⤴️
  • “(5) Taking responsibility for the self and others; (6) Self-compassion; and (7) Compassion toward others.” ⤴️
  • “In the analyzed slides, acceptance of the human condition appeared largely in the form of embracing gains and losses as inevitable and necessary, nostalgia, and the importance of remaining hopeful.” ⤴️
  • “Intrapersonal connection requires self-knowledge (possessing information about the self), self-understanding (making sense of oneself), and self-acceptance (embracing one’s contradictions and perceived shortcomings) (Balough, 2022; Klussman et al., 2022; Maurer et al., 2023; Szanto, 2017). With regard to PWB, this self-connection is operationalized as reduction of the distance between an individual’s actual and ideal selves (Rogers, 1967). Congruence between these selves means that she is living authentically (Rogers, 1961). However, there is no static, singular authentic self (Rogers, 1961; Ryff & Singer, 2008).” ⤴️
  • “Maslow’s (1943; 1951) self-actualized state represents an idealized end result of a continuous process that, in actuality, is virtually never truly secured. This is similar to Marx’s (1844/1978) species-being (detailed in the next section), an ideal being state in which individuals overcome alienation and authentically live to their fullest potential but cannot be attained under capitalism.” ⤴️
  • “prosociality (e.g., empathy, altruism, related behaviors, faith in humanity) in particular interpersonal instances and toward humankind broadly, as they go hand-in-hand (Haidt, 2003; Lay & Hoppmann, 2015; Raney et al., 2020).” ⤴️
  • “Psychologists believe that the empathy-altruism link (Feigin et al., 2014) was an evolutionary advantage, helping individuals secure this basic need. The highest form of human connection is self-transcendence (Maslow, 1969) wherein there is a feeling of harmony with greater humanity (Raney et al., 2020). This entails rising above personal needs or intergroup differences and experiencing solidarity with humankind (Koltko-Rivera, 2006), which is strengthened by prosocial behavior and working toward a common good (Fredrickson, 2001).” ⤴️
  • “social belonging is inextricably linked to self-concept and vital in securing a positive well-being, even in individualistic Western cultures (Bond & Cheung, 1983; Dogan, 2019)” ⤴️
  • “as my data indicate, many netizens identified interpersonal relations and prosociality as part of their MIL” ⤴️
  • “Marx’s Theory of Alienation” ⤴️
  • “The theory’s fundamental premise is that capitalism alienates proletarian workers from four parts of their life: their products, the act of production, other people, and humans’ species-being.1 The outcome is disillusionment with work and detachment from others, themselves, and reality itself (Marx, 1844/1978). Of the four types of alienation, this paper pertains most to alienation from species-being.” ⤴️
  • “capitalism turns the products that workers make into “something alien, as a power independent of the producer (Marx, 1844/1978, p. 71, emphasis in original).” ⤴️
  • “binds the value of human beings to an external material object that they do not control” ⤴️
  • “in a capitalist economy, it is the product that holds power over its producer” ⤴️
  • “workers are alienated from other people. Individualism and prioritization of bourgeois profit deem community and prosocial behavior frivolous. Instead of being able to foster egalitarian cooperation, workers are controlled by or forced to compete with others.” ⤴️
  • “capitalism alienates workers from their species-being, or what it means to be human” ⤴️
  • “To Marx, consciousness, nature appreciation, freedom to express creativity, and prosociality are at the heart of species-being (Healy, 2020).” ⤴️
  • “He contrasts humans from animals, claiming that animals lack free will and consciousness (Marx, 1844/1978, 1867/1978).” ⤴️
  • “Marx (1867/1978) writes that animals strictly produce for their survival and out of instinct alone, whereas humans freely and consciously labor for creativity’s sake or the common good of humankind. He writes, “The animal is immediately identical with its life-activity. It does not distinguish itself from it. It is its life-activity. Man makes his life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Marx, 1844/1978, p. 76).” ⤴️
  • all mammals, all birds and at least some others
  • “TikTok ‘web-weaving’ (WW) slideshows and the user practices that go into their curation.” ⤴️
  • “capitalism strips away workers’ humanity, reducing them to an animal-like status” ⤴️
  • “Capitalism deprives us of a developed sense of self, creative expression, and MIL outside of forced labor.” ⤴️
  • “self-alienated individuals are “frequently unaware of or largely unable to describe their own intrapsychic processes” (see also Szanto, 2017). In addition to an internal disconnect, self-alienated individuals often have negative self-image and do not feel like their authentic selves (Maurer et al., 2023; Rogers, 1961; Szanto, 2017). This parallels the PGP model’s argument that personal growth necessarily entails “regaining a connection to the self” (Maurer et al., 2023, p. 2), as well as Marx’s (1844/1978) characterization of species-being as an ability for “man” to “come to be himself and to comprehend himself” (p. 83).” ⤴️
  • “Maslow (1962) later uses “maturity” as a synonym for self-actualization over “maturation.” His word choice demonstrates that self-actualization is a state of being as opposed to a process.” ⤴️
  • “Being, expressing, rather than coping. This state of Being, rather than of striving, is suspected to be synonymous with selfhood, with being “authentic,” with being a person, with being fully human. The process of growth is the process of becoming a person. Being a person is different. (p. 188)” ⤴️
  • “species-being and self-actualization embody nonjudgmental understanding and being of the self in spite of political oppression.” ⤴️
  • “In such moments, humans are emotionally moved and intrinsically motivated insofar as they enter a flow state (see Csíkszentmihályi, 1990), becoming unaware of temporal and spatial realities (Maslow, 1962). This, joined with heightened passion, allows us to “experience a communion beyond the boundaries of the self” (Koltko-Rivera, 2006, p. 303).” ⤴️
  • “self-actualization—the complete realization of selfhood—begets “a going beyond and above selfhood” (Maslow, 1999, p. 117).” ⤴️
  • “Self-transcendent individuals devote themselves to a greater cause (e.g., community service, art, activism), which in turn promotes more peak experiences (Koltko-Rivera, 2006). Through repeated peak experiences and a growing commitment to a transpersonal project or goal (i.e., one that goes beyond self-interest), individuals experience unity with the natural world and with humankind on a grand scale. This prompts a feeling that they are part of something larger than themselves (Maslow, 1969), which often generates prosocial behavior backed by altruistic motivation (Batson & Powell, 2003; Sternberg, 2003).” ⤴️
  • “Marx (1857/1978) blames capitalism for alienation from species-being, claiming that it can only be overcome in a communal society” ⤴️
  • “Maslow’s (1969) self-transcendence supplements self-actualization to round out species-being, pertaining to humans’ need to experience awe toward nature’s “laws of beauty” and a communal society built upon prosocial behavior that serves the transpersonal welfare of the collective (Koltko-Rivera, 2006; Marx, 1844/1978, p. 76).” ⤴️
  • “Capitalism makes self-actualization difficult, but eudaimonic media can temporarily combat alienation from oneself and others.” ⤴️
  • “to feel coherence, audience members use characters as a social model (Bandura, 1977) to better understand how to interact with the world (Sweeny, 2008), reflect on their own actions and previous events (Park, 2010), or to incorporate information into their cognitive schema to reinforce their existing worldview (Anderson et al., 2013).” ⤴️
  • “According to the Temporarily Expanded Boundaries of the Self (TEBOTS) model (Slater et al., 2014), stories about others temporarily expand our sense of self because we immerse ourselves in the plot and identify with its characters. Thus, we receive psychological gratification from a momentary expansion of the self when we consume eudaimonic media, even if the story includes negative elements (Cohen et al., 2020).” ⤴️
  • “eudaimonic media can spur feelings of self-transcendence (Oliver, 2022), mitigating interpersonal and species-being alienation as well.” ⤴️
  • “Because capitalism isolates workers from community and positions others as superiors or competitors (Marx, 1847/1978), individuals have few opportunities to bond closely with others outside of their nuclear families. Fortunately, eudaimonic media can promote interpersonal, intergroup, and species-wide harmony.” ⤴️
  • “As Marx (1844/1978) argued, “feelings of connection transcend perceptions of any single person and are frequently felt toward humankind overall” (Raney et al., 2020, p. 265). Self-transcendent media experiences arise “when audience members recognize in themselves elements of shared humanity, as well as the potential for moral beauty, hope, and courage” (Clayton et al., 2021, p. 360; Oliver et al., 2018)” ⤴️
  • “the psychology of eudaimonic media experiences shares emphases on prosocial behaviors, empathy and altruism, and self-transcendent solidarity with humankind.” ⤴️
  • “consuming media with eudaimonic messages can reduce these feelings and promote personal growth, as is the case with WW slideshows” ⤴️
  • “Due to my “participant as observer” positionality (Kawulich, 2005), I was already familiar with and enjoyed WW slideshows. Thus, prior to data collection, I had general ideas of what themes to expect. However, I wanted to ensure that I was painting an accurate and authentic picture of the data (Brennen, 2017). So, I kept these general ideas undeveloped and vague in the back of my mind, rather than developing a formal list of a priori codes (Saldaña, 2021).” ⤴️
  • “From a humanistic and critical cultural standpoint, many slides promote counter-hegemonic beliefs that reject “demands of conservative ideologies” (Joseph, 2021, p. 7), namely capitalist notions of individualism, productivity, and fatalism (Fisher, 2009). In all, WW content provides alternative, more optimistic ways of thinking as strategies for survival, framing self-love and community as resources for resistance.” ⤴️
  • “(Maurer et al., 2023). The authors define the self as a “multidimensional construct containing both intra- and interpersonal beings”” ⤴️
  • “self-awareness is “meta-awareness of one’s mind, including how clearly one is able to understand one’s mind, emotions and behavior and how it connects to their social world”” ⤴️
  • “As Rogers (1961) and Maurer et al. (2023) note, individuals do not have a singular authentic self, thus my language of “an aspect of one’s internal self” and “part of her self.” Instead, acting authentically “means that they act in line with any of the multiple simultaneous roles and identities they may hold without a sense of inner conflict” or “external influence” (Maurer et al., 2023, p. 3, 5). Therefore, to be self-aware and authentic, one would accept this multitude without judgment.” ⤴️
  • “Helga Dittmar’s (e.g., 1992, 2011) research demonstrates, the axiom “to have is to be” is psychologically real (see also Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1981).” ⤴️
  • “affect balance, which refers to the ability to appropriately manage positive and negative emotions and experiences (Veilleux et al., 2020). Affect balance is strongly correlated with emotional regulation, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction (Bradburn, 1969; Raney et al., 2020).” ⤴️
  • “nostalgia can be a coping mechanism to manage terror, emotionally regulate, or cope with hardship, including loss of relationships, death, and the massage of time (Abeyta et al., 2015b; Perloff, 2016; Routledge, 2016; Wulf et al., 2022).” ⤴️
  • “As a “uniquely relationship-focused experience” (Routledge, 2016, p. 28), nostalgia promotes feelings of interpersonal connectedness, even with those who are no longer in one’s life (Abeyta et al., 2015b).” ⤴️
  • “Humans’ cognitive tendency to construct memories like story narratives explains how we temporarily expand our sense of self when consuming media (especially eudaimonic media) to empathize with characters (Slater et al., 2014). It also explains why we resonate most with characters whom we view as similar to ourselves (Klimmt & Rieger, 2021).” ⤴️
  • “Effects of nostalgia include prosocial behavior, specifically through the formation of interpersonal relationships (Abeyta et al., 2015a).” ⤴️
  • “Perseverance.” ⤴️
  • “mixed-methods qualitative approach” ⤴️
  • “TikTok “web-weaving” (WW) slideshows and the user practices that go into their curation.” ⤴️
  • “images such as Tumblr blog posts, illustrations, book quotes, and poems” ⤴️
  • “eudaimonic (i.e., emotionally poignant, existential, or vulnerable)” ⤴️
  • “Drawing upon Marx’s theory of alienation and humanistic psychology, I analyze how WW slideshows promote personal growth (as defined by Maurer et al., 2023) and counter-hegemonic sentiments that challenge what psychologist Stephen Joseph (2021) calls “the demands of conservative ideologies” (p. 7) such as individualism, productivity, and capitalist realism (Fisher, 2009).” ⤴️
  • “highlight the necessity of community, resting, engaging in creative activities outside of capitalist labor relations, and maintaining hope for imagined better futures (Grant, 2005).” ⤴️
  • “gratifications of WW: increased self-connection, a psychologically safe environment, and social connectedness.” ⤴️
  • “bring attention to online self-disclosure practices related to mental health and personal growth within current Western capitalistic culture via an interdisciplinary critical media effects framework (Ramasubramanian & Banjo, 2020).” ⤴️
  • “TikTok stood out against its competitors due to its unique relationship with its algorithm (see Duguay & Gold-Apel, 2023; Miltsov, 2022; Vaterlaus & Winter, 2021). Whereas other platforms at this time typically used algorithms to “supplement other user interactions,” TikTok “highlighted the role of its algorithm” (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022, p. 5).” ⤴️
  • “we are witnessing the social media landscape becoming increasingly algorithmic (McMahon, 2024), changing how users self-express on the Internet in real time.” ⤴️
  • “according to Urban Dictionary, is “a combination of images and stills from film or television quotes, art pieces, song lyrics, lines of poetry, even film scripts, which have a theme in common” (@gabiloo, 2022)” ⤴️
  • “WW first appeared on Tumblr but soon made its way to TikTok, where these images become slides in a photo carousel-style slideshow.” ⤴️
  • “Many WW slideshows also fall under a genre of online content called ‘hopecore,’ a social media phenomenon that pushes back against the nihilism and negativity on the Internet that arose from the 2016 US presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic (Rizvic, 2024).” ⤴️
  • “Although generally optimistic, hopecore avoids promoting what the Anxiety & Depression Association of America calls “toxic positivity,” in which “encouraging statements are expected to minimize or eliminate painful emotions, creating pressure to be unrealistically optimistic without considering the circumstances of the situation” (Reynolds, 2022). Instead, hopecore also explores themes of “grief, friendship, and loneliness but with a similarly sensitive, existential perspective” (Rizvic, 2024).” ⤴️
  • “a form of eudaimonic media—poignant media that generates complex emotions, awe, or existential thought about the human condition (De Ridder, 2022).” ⤴️
  • “the content that goes into the slideshows, web-weavers’ (WWers’) slideshow curation process, and the experienced effects and gratifications that result from WW.” ⤴️
  • “TikTok WW slideshows are interesting because they blur the boundaries of content creation versus curation.” ⤴️
  • “a qualitative mixed methods project.” ⤴️
  • “aim is to “describe and interpret formal characteristics and likely meanings” using semiotics and a critical analysis of power and ideology (Black, 2022, p. 801).” ⤴️
  • “Maslow’s (1943, 1962) self-actualization (supplemented with self-transcendence) resembles species-being such that they are both ideal states that people have the potential to, but are not guaranteed to, achieve (Grant, 2005)” ⤴️
  • “existential fulfillment, creative expression, positive views of humankind, and authenticity,” ⤴️
  • “demonstrate counter-hegemonic ideals that reject capitalist ideas of values such as individualism, productivity, and capitalist realism (Fisher, 2009). This concept refers to the idea that capitalism is the “only viable political and economic system” (p. 2), as it depicts any counter-hegemonic alternative as impossible and not worth exploring.” ⤴️
  • “They also used TikTok as a tool to consolidate content that they have saved across different digital locations (e.g., Pinterest boards, camera roll albums, Tumblr blogs, Spotify playlists) in one place.” ⤴️
  • “TikTok accounts became a digital journal of sorts. This journal-like quality allows WWers to reread previously uploaded slideshows, creating a connection between their past and present (Sedikides et al., 2023).” ⤴️
  • “Eudaimonic qualitative data units (e.g., Tumblr blog posts, poems, and interview transcripts) provide insight into subjective understandings of personal growth subprocesses and what experiencing them feels like in easily understood lay terms.” ⤴️
  • “my chosen methods contribute to a holistic view of personal growth and human nature, welcoming subjectivity and incorporating normative critique of our online and offline social environments and their capitalistic culture.” ⤴️
  • “they do not follow a cohesive, chronological storyline or any characters whose journeys we get to observe. However, even as a “combination of various pieces of media from different sources” (@myctwebweaving, 2021), WW slideshows still elicit eudaimonic effects.” ⤴️
  • “audience members do not need a story-driven plot (e.g., movie or TV episode narratives) to experience emotional poignancy,” ⤴️