Slacktivism, Supervision, and #Selfies

Since its original development for use in literary studies by German scholar Hans Robert Jauss in the late 1960s, reception theory has been successfully applied to fields as diverse as media studies, communications, and art history; its efficacy within rhetoric and composition pedagogy, however, has been less fully explored. I argue in this essay that reception theory can provide a meaningful way to understand and discuss social media composing practices, especially as a lens for thinking about why and how we participate in social media as both readers and writers in the 21st century. This essay thus examines the three “aesthetic experiences” of Jauss's reception theory—catharsis, aisthesis, and poiesis— which describe the ways that audiences derive satisfaction from engaging with texts. I apply each aesthetic concept to a corresponding mode of social media composition: practices of social media-based activism, regulation of content on social media, as well as the act of creating “selfies.” These applications stand as potential entry points for classroom discussion about how social media draws its users into producing a response. The “aesthetic experiences” represent ways to look at composing practices on social media cohesively, but they also give language to how individual social media users gain enjoyment from participating with these sites. I offer specific strategies for incorporating reception theory in a classroom context, and conclude that this approach helps students think more specifically about the intricacies and limitations of audience(s)—important recognitions for anyone who produces content in social media environments.