Here's a social media anecdote that stuck in my mind.

I'd clicked on the profile of some minor celebrity small enough that they would be managing

their own social media and I saw this strange interaction.

Another user was just sending them reams of abuse, really the most executable stuff.

And then when they finally responded, they turned on a pin and showered the celebrity

with love.

Oh, I was only joking, I love you, et cetera, et cetera.

And then when you clicked through onto their profile, you'd see in their little biography

noticed by celebrity ex on a given date.

And I just thought, what an earth was going on.

You're listening to Navara FM on Resonance, 104.4 FM London's finest radio station.

I am James Butler.

Social media examples are always hyperbolic, of course, and pity the thinker who bases

all their thinking on whatever pathology has been thrown up by Twitter.

And yet one reason this example has stayed with me is that the desire to be seen, the desire

to be recognised, the desire to be visible does seem so much a part of our contemporary

culture and thus our politics, but seen and recognised by what?

And how?

And if that's been a feature of our culture for a while, what has the advent of the platform,

the rise of surveillance capitalism and the slow degradation of the public sphere done

to it?

Political theory nerds might recognise some of this as the theme of the so-called recognition

...