In traditional cultural fields, visibility often conferred influence. Being noticed could shift attention, amplify voices, and open space for change.
Platforms change this dynamic. Visibility is now optimised, measured, and metabolised. To be seen is no longer automatically powerful; it is data feeding a system that actively stabilises coordination.
The Illusion of Influence
When a post goes viral, or a message spreads rapidly, it feels like disruption. But platforms do not judge content by truth, ethics, or depth. They judge uptake:
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clicks
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shares
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dwell time
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affective responses
The more a post triggers these signals, the more it is absorbed into systemic stability, regardless of intent. Visibility produces coordination, not resistance.
Participation as Training
Every interaction — a like, a comment, a share — trains the field. Visibility amplifies the reach of certain patterns, making them feel normal and intelligible.
Even dissenting or subversive content can be absorbed harmlessly if it aligns stylistically or rhythmically with the dominant flow.
Power is no longer in being seen, but in altering what is intelligible to others.
Why Viral Opposition Often Strengthens Dominance
Paradoxically, the act of going viral can reinforce the very structures it seeks to oppose:
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The field learns the form of opposition, not its argument.
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Patterns of style, affect, and rhythm are stabilised.
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Future content is filtered through these established pathways.
Visibility without field reconfiguration is coordination reinforcement, not subversion.
The Role of Aesthetic Alignment
Platforms optimise for recognisability and repeatability, not novelty or depth. This means:
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The system favours content that aligns with prior patterns.
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Disruption is tolerated only if it is easily digestible.
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Outlier voices may appear loud but are structurally neutralised.
Visibility is apparent, not effective, because intelligibility — not attention — is the true lever of coordination.
Implications for Relational Intervention
To act subversively in platformed fields:
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Do not assume that being seen equals influence.
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Focus on field-level effects: how uptake trains perception, expectation, and style.
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Prioritise temporal pacing and form over content alone.
Subversion is now a question of reshaping the conditions under which content can be intelligibly taken up, not simply broadcasting counter-messages.
Closing
Visibility has become a commodity. It may feel like power, but it is often absorbed into optimisation loops, neutralising its potential for real disruption.
To intervene responsibly requires attending to coordination itself, not exposure, and to style, rhythm, and pacing rather than content alone.
In the next post, we examine how platforms produce belonging without responsibility, generating what we might call “phantom coordination”.
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