The article examines examples of artistic activities in which the problem of digitization of identity in the era of social media is critically addressed. Algorithmic data processing and thus creating a virtual shadow, the digital selves of users, are the key practices of surveillance capitalism. Therefore, to provide context to the analysis of works of three artists (Erica Sourti, Aram Bartholl, Timo Toots) a short overview of the evolution of the concept and practices of social media is introduced. From the very beginning, the key place in the concept of Web 2.0 and social media was assigned to the user, understood as an active agent, who autonomously creates and controls his/her position on the Internet. As economic and cultural hegemony of platforms increased, the gap between the ideology of active prosumers and practices resulting in the objectification, commodification and incapacitation of users became increasingly clear. A special role in this process is played by user profiling and the creation of digital identities that are useful from the point of view of corporations. By investigating the mechanisms of algorithmic power and its consequences for the status of users involved in online power relations, Scourti, Bartholl and Toots pose a number of questions crucial for understanding of contemporary culture dominated by social media moguls. What are the relationships between the embodied subject and his/her digital self? How does the digital re-creation of the subject influence the existential possibilities of users, their self-awareness and possibilities for self-governance? What are the consequences of commercial user profiling for understanding the very category of self? How can users influence the production and presence of digital identities? Is individual and social resistance to the instrumental power of surveillance capitalism possible? If so, what forms might it take?
