Abstract
The past several years have witnessed the emergence of interactive media with social networking sites. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have all become increasingly popular social marketing tools for many companies which substantially changed the role of the consumer from a passive target to an active participant. Through the interactive relationship companies establish with their online customers, users of SNS have become agents of their own consumption and co-producers of the brand. Although the relationship between the retailer and consumer is unparalleled, it is one that is necessary with the increasing fragmentation in the public sphere. SNS have become largely successful because they give individuals the opportunity to create identities online and retailers have complemented that by giving consumers control over the design and production of their products. However, I argue that this perceived control is merely an ideological fallacy of individualism that is predetermined and reproduces conformity in mass society.
