Civilizing users through social media corporate curricula

Abstract

The psychological, political and social risks of social media are commonly up for debate. In response, social media companies are producing free to access lesson plans, tool-kits, and other pedagogical materials that seek to educate users about responsible social media use. Through a document analysis of such resources released by Meta, including Facebook's Get Digital literacy campaign and Instagram's Community Programs and Guides, we show how the social media corporate curriculum invites learners to interpret, discuss, and act upon the problems of social media as if they were an individual issue. We argue that this not only entrenches neoliberalized values of personal resilience but also functions, following Norbert Elias, to civilize the user through the cultivation of manners, morals, and codes of digital conduct. We close by highlighting the contingency of such an arrangement, offering alternative pedagogical approaches that do not reproduce these universalizing effects.