As developmental psychologist Robert Kegan described the adolescent experience long before the advent of Facebook, "There is no self independent of the context of 'other people liking.'" This is not a moral or emotional shortcoming but a fact of life in this developmental moment, and it entails certain predictable consequences. For example, one tends to operate through social comparison. One can be easy prey to manipulation, with few defenses against social pressure and other forms of social influence. The fixed belief system of an established group can all too easily fill the inner void, substituting an externally sourced identity for the work of self-construction.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 1445