Tarde, Affect, and Network Effect of Social Media

This chapter proposes a sociology of affect that emphasizes ensembles of microscopic events and processes associated with the production and transformation of the network effect. It argues that Trade’s monadology of imitation, invention, and opposition of belief and desire offers an essential reference to define affect as a relational, non-conscious, and virtual force. The avidity of the monad to possess the whole world within itself activates affect of bonding, socializing, self-expression, and recognition, engendering the micro-relational activities of gathering, producing, evaluating, and classifying on the social media platform. The platforms’ affective priming for user retention aims to trigger suggestibility to connection, individuality, creativity, inspiration, and more. It seeks to make user engagement a non-conscious and unwitting process, much like a somnambulism. The network effect, mostly actualized as a company’s market capitalization, is constantly traversed by the molecular movement of virtual force enveloped within it, leading to the becoming of new assemblages, such as decentralized platforms, peer-to-peer networking, blockchain, and universal basic income.