Post 2008 Surveillance capitalism has exploited self-actualization into being a buyable, singular, and unchanging identity. (or, Post-2008 surveillance capitalism least solidified concepts perpetuated by mid-century capitalism)
It has commemorated this idea of never being one's true self, where the true self is the ideal, best, singular and unchanging within one's own control. A set of physical and behavioral traits within the realm of planned contingencies.
Capitalism is trying to commodify internalized human experience through avenues and post-object sellability. Commercializing self actualization is one of these avenues. They make relationship development synonymous with sellable events. You go to a post-object capitalized event in hopes to get closer or to maintain a relationship with your friends; capitalism wants you to think that it’s these events that make this growth possible, when in reality it’s not.
The public rejects overt company influence in order to maintain internal control, the person who is being advertised expresses boredom through knowing that they’re already being sold a product. There is no natural human story being told, so there is no opportunity to experience mystery and intrigue. Surveillance capitalist companies need to become more parasocial in order to maintain customer loyalty. They want you to see them with the same phenomena you do with a friend, but brands cannot risk giving you the experience of negativity, friends can.
In an ideal capitalist market, products are produced cheaply and en masse, but sold with prices as if a human was making the product. They want buyers to have an emotional connection with the product as if it is a real part of their identity and experience. In reality the material object is a conduit for the emotional phenomena.
Capitalism is trying to blur the lines of the experience and its connection to the material, and many people already believe that without a material conduit the experience does not exist. Furthermore, in an ideal market, every facet of experience is capitalized upon. From first love, drinking water, excretion, and death. There is nothing sacred that capitalism cannot touch. There is no escape from spending.
It feels like through a two-dimensional plane such as social media, the experience is novel and nearly detatched from the experiences in a three dimensional world. It is a kind of post-object sellability, and it has taken over our lives through it's pure saturation and the social dynamics that necessitate having an account. By having key memories and maturity develop on a capitalized space such as social media, your very identity is tied to capitalism nullifying the idea of internal phenomena being untouched by the market.