Alexander Douglas Goes Online: Digital Culture and the Self

In Against Identity, heralded as “a superb critique of contemporary self-obsession” by Steven Poole of The Guardian, Douglas shows how three philosophers from very different eras – Zhuangzi, Benedict de Spinoza and post-modern philosopher Rene Girard – arrive at a similar idea: our longing for a sense of self can never be adequately filled and, worse, our attempts to be our true selves are to blame for much of the misery we face as individuals and societies. In Girard’s terms, to pursue identity is to practice mimetic desire, an ultimately hopeless routine of longing and imitation that necessarily leads to envy and rivalry.

How does this perspective change how we view our digital lives? How much of what we do online is in service of identity, and is this a blind spot in our attempts to think critically about the impact of social media and Big Tech? What to make of the range of expressions of identity online, from meme-sharing subcultures to influencers and AI companions? What form of online culture, if any, would facilitate escaping the self?

To help grapple with some of these questions, Douglas will be joined by respondents Mela Miekus and Jernej Markelj. Following the talks there will be an audience Q&A and roundtable discussion, led by moderators Geert Lovink and Michael Stevenson.

This event is made possible by the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities, the New Media & Digital Culture chair group, as well as the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.

Speakers

Alexander Douglas was born in Canberra, Australia where he studied music and philosophy. He now teaches the history of philosophy and the philosophy of economics at the University of St Andrews. In addition to Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self (Penguin, 2025), he is the author of The Philosophy of Hope: Beatitude in Spinoza (Routledge, 2023) and The Philosophy of Debt (Routledge, 2016). He has grown increasingly interested in combining ideas from Western and East Asian philosophy. He loves music, literature, history, and engineering. He lives with his wife in Edinburgh.

Jernej Markelj is a Lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on affective politics of digital media, agentic imaginaries of AI, and online gender.

Mela Miekus is an Amsterdam-based writer and researcher with a background in art theory and curating. Her research practice centers around contemporary art and internet cultures with a focus on mediated figure design, the politics of aesthetics, and online girlhood. She is currently a researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures.

Geert Lovink (moderator) is a media theorist and internet critic. He has authored several books on internet culture including Platform Brutality: Closing Down Internet Toxicity (Valiz, 2025).

Michael Stevenson (moderator) researches the history of internet cultures and social media, and is the co-author of Doing Media Research (Sage, 2025). He is an associate professor in the Media Studies department at the University of Amsterdam.