The Californian Ideology and a Democratic Social Media?

This paper considers the democratic implications for social media with reference to Richard Barbrook and Andy Camerons’ ‘Californian Ideology’ (1995). This definitive essay provided a corrective to the utopian abstract of the Net Citizen (or ‘Netizen’) which had been conceived by advocates of new Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) like Wired Magazine. Most especially, it acted as a critique of Silicon Valley’s conflation of the ‘heroic’ individualism apparent in Ayn Rand’s Objectivism with its technocratic embracement of corporate power. Invariably, this fusion existed via an ostensible counter-cultural spirit as exemplified by Steve Jobs who constructed Apple as a vehicle for utopian libertarianism. Simultaneously, Jobs monopolised the digital marketplace with non-compatable technology. He had gone on the Hippy Trail wherein he embraced Eastern mysticism in his 'living on thin air' ideology while engaging in anti-competitive practices to become a ‘guru.’ of the information revolution. In tandem Marc Andreesson, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have presented their behemoths of Microsoft, Amazon, PayPal and Meta as representations of individual creativity, social libertarianism and political liberation. This is in spite of their corporate worth and trust-style cormering of information environments.