Reading, capitalism, and Instagram

This article summarises theoretical considerations on the reading process, describes the processual mechanics of reading, and applies selected approaches to the study of an Instagram autobiography to prove that there are strong connections between capitalism, narrative composition of social media narratives, and styles of reading. The analysis of Marzena Marideko’s narrative shows how the use of eventfulness, multimodality, and lacunae contributes to the construction of the process of reading as one in which attention is as important as signification, comprehension is not a necessary outcome, and intended tellability overrules narrativity. By studying the nexus of event, illusory immediacy, and elision, I claim the poetics of Instagram reading is essentially predicated on the mechanics and demands of cognitive capitalism.