Between Arendt and Rancière, a reading on politics and social networks

Abstract

Objective. This article offers a philosophical analysis of the transformation of politics in the digital age, based on the ideas of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. It aims to understand how social media has redefined the spaces of political action, dissent, and freedom. The objective is to question the meaning of activity on social networks as a supposed form of resistance and plurality, in contrast with the dynamics of control, discourse trivialization, and the attention economy. Methodology. A qualitative, hermeneutic approach is employed, grounded in the critical analysis of philosophical texts by Arendt and Rancière, in dialogue with contemporary phenomena stemming from digital hyperconnectivity. Interpreting these sources allows for a reflection on the nature of political action in digital environments, as well as on the limits and contradictions of disruptive discourse on social media. Results.
The research shows that although social media initially emerged as a promise of new spaces for dissent, dialogue, and the reconfiguration of the common, these platforms have ultimately reproduced traditional forms of control and exclusion. The attention economy and the logic of immediacy have trivialized political discourse, reducing collective action to fleeting gestures of visibility. This has limited the possibility of genuine politics—understood as the miracle of action (Arendt) or the emergence of dissensus (Rancière). Conclusion.
Social media has failed to establish itself as a space for transformative political action. On the contrary, its structure has enabled new forms of silencing and the reproduction of order. In this context, the thought of Arendt and Rancière remains essential to rethinking the challenges of contemporary politics and distinguishing between mere participation and authentic political action in a digital environment marked by acceleration, symbolic control, and the loss of the common.