Meaningfulness and Subjectivation

Abstract

Let me recall a Super Bowl 2010 Google video ad titled “Parisian Love.” In it, we see easily recognizable Google interfaces—mostly the Google search engine, but also Google Translate and Google Maps— queried by an anonymous user over the span of many years. We start with a search for study abroad programs in Paris, go through queries on how to romance in French and where to take a date, followed by how-to advice on long-distance relationships, then how to find a job in Paris, a church to get married in, and ultimately how to assemble a crib. The message, of course, is that Google has all the answers, both practical and profound. The ad illustrates quite powerfully the crucial importance of Google as a platform that lends meaning to our lives. It marks a significant departure from the previous image of the search engine as a retriever of knowledge and information. Google, the ad shows, now acts as a confidante and figure of empowerment; it takes an active role in enabling a process of becoming, both at the psychic level of desire and satisfaction, and at the social level of fitting in. In other words, Google does not simply provide the right kind of information; it provides safety, certainty, and connections, fulfilling a psychosocial function by bringing in social order and individual satisfaction.