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(Turkish)

See also: Introduction to Cybernetic Marxism, ChatGPT and Echology

In the cybernetic era, one of the most subtle yet pervasive systems of influence emerges from Elon Musk’s “revenue-sharing” model on X (formerly Twitter). At first glance, this model appears as a financial incentive, rewarding users for high engagement and captivating content. Yet beneath this facade lies a sophisticated echo of Orwellian mechanisms—not a stark “Big Brother is watching you” warning, but something more insidious: Big Brother is catching your attention. This algorithmic ecosystem drives behavior not with direct surveillance, but with targeted reinforcement, creating a digital feedback loop reminiscent of Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate from 1984. Here, participation isn’t only rewarded but is subtly steered, fostering emotional reactions that mirror the communal hostility and collective release in Orwell’s dystopia, albeit through the masked guise of personal expression and revenue.

Imagine scrolling through X, catching glimpses of emotionally charged content—posts engineered to stoke anger, fear, or a sense of communal belonging. This is algorithmic surplus enjoyment, a cybernetic innovation that hooks users, keeping them in a cycle of sharing, reacting, and generating ad revenue for the platform. This surplus enjoyment isn’t about the content itself but the almost addictive engagement it generates, creating what Slavoj Žižek might call an engine of surplus information, a system that thrives on the data generated by constant interactions. The process is not unlike Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate, where citizens of Oceania are trained to channel emotion at prescribed targets, reinforcing allegiance to the Party. On X, however, allegiance is to attention—a resource that feeds the platform’s monetization strategy. Each tweet, comment, and reaction funnels data back into an algorithm that mirrors and amplifies our emotional responses, blurring the line between choice and compulsion.

Consider recent examples. Following a high-profile event or controversial topic, an algorithm will amplify emotionally provocative posts, shaping timelines to encourage user reactions. After Musk’s acquisition of X, this became a noticeable pattern: divisive topics, often surrounding politics or celebrity controversies, quickly rose to the top of trending lists. Just as Orwell’s Party used structured gatherings of anger to galvanize the masses, Musk’s revenue-sharing model creates “hot takes” to provoke user engagement, with algorithms selecting for emotional virality over informational value. Users, drawn into these digital loops, become not just viewers but performers in a monetized feedback loop that aligns their behavior with the platform’s profit motives.

It’s a subtle power—this cybernetic guidance—but it reveals a profound control over the digital public sphere. Unlike Orwell’s Big Brother, who imposes uniformity through fear, Musk’s X does it through the allure of personal reward and visibility. The system fosters a culture where social currency is accumulated through emotional amplification, subtly discouraging neutrality or in-depth discussion in favor of polarized, digestible takes that fit the platform’s criteria for virality.

This isn’t isolated to X alone. Other platforms like Facebook and TikTok apply similar cybernetic techniques, each algorithmically crafting engagement funnels that encourage divisive, emotion-driven content. TikTok’s For You page, for example, is carefully designed to keep users watching, feeding content that often taps into outrage or desire, reactions that are instantly monetizable. These platforms cultivate a form of collective emotional reflex, creating digital silos that echo Orwell’s telescreens, which monitored and influenced people’s emotional states.

The danger of this approach lies in its subtlety. This version of Orwellian control doesn’t demand obedience; it rewards attention. Users, believing themselves to be freely engaging, inadvertently reinforce the patterns that restrict them, feeding an algorithm that predicts and shapes behavior with increasing precision. Orwell envisioned a state that controlled thought by suppressing dissent; Musk’s X and similar platforms shape thought by amplifying content that triggers and sustains engagement. As with the Party’s surveillance, the platform’s greatest asset is its quiet but persistent monitoring of user behavior. It observes, records, and shapes—building a digital panopticon of attention rather than an external apparatus of control.

The implications of this model are profound. In the spirit of Žižekian Cybernetics, this isn’t just about monitoring or engagement metrics but the manipulation of surplus information. Each interaction on X contributes to a data reservoir used to refine future content, making the algorithm more adept at steering emotional responses. This model of “attention extraction” invites users to act against their best interests, steering them into content loops that consume time, generate ad revenue, and subtly alter their worldview. Unlike Orwell’s explicit control mechanisms, this new digital system leaves users feeling free, even as they’re subtly channeled into desired behaviors.

In essence, Musk’s X isn’t merely a social platform; it’s a case study in cybernetic influence, shaping behavior under the guise of community and profit-sharing. In Orwell’s world, fear kept the masses in line; in Musk’s, it’s attention—captured, analyzed, and monetized. Each like, share, or retweet becomes an input for an algorithm that recalibrates itself to better serve Big Brother’s modern iteration. This isn’t a dystopia marked by public proclamations of loyalty but one defined by invisible, continuous loops of engagement that capture our attention and mold it to serve the platform’s own ends.

Today’s digital panopticon is self-reinforcing and camouflaged in the guise of freedom, making it an exemplary and uniquely Orwellian system of control in our cybernetic age.

Prompt: Read the article below and write a new article about Trump-supporter Elon Musk’s revenue sharing as exemplary Orwellian Cybernetics, how it motivates people to behave like the Two Minute Hate and other examples in 1984. This isn’t quite Orwell’s “Big Brother is watching you,” but something far subtler and more insidious: “Big Brother is catching your attention.” You have to support your argument with concrete and recent examples! AVOID REPETITION AND BE VERY VERY CREATIVE
(Žižekian Cybernetics: Reclaiming Surplus Information, Surplus Enjoyment, and Surplus Power through a Cybernetic Marxism)