From Fetishism to Data Worship: Marx’s Critical Theory in the Digital Age

In the deep structure of the logic of capital, objects have never been merely objects; they are rather a disguised form of social relations. Marx pointed out that commodity exchange conceals the real connections between people and reifies social relations into relations among things, thereby giving rise to the phenomenon known as fetishism. Today, as digital technology permeates every level of social operation, data is gradually replacing commodities as a new universal intermediary, while algorithms and platforms constitute new mechanisms of order. In this transformation, the logic of reification has not come to an end; rather, in the guise of data worship, it continues and deepens capital’s domination over human beings. The neutral illusion of data, the personalized narratives of algorithms, and the precise regulation of behavior by platforms together constitute, in essence, the new ideological structure of digital capitalism. Faced with these new changes, it is urgently necessary to activate the explanatory power and interventionist capacity of Marx’s critical theory in the digital age, so as to reveal the new forms of the reification mechanism in the era of digital capitalism.

在资本逻辑的深层结构中，物从来不只是物，更是社会关系的伪装形式。马克思指出，商品交换掩盖了人与人之间的真实联系，并将社会关系物化为物的关系，由此产生了所谓的拜物教现象。如今，随着数字技术渗透到社会运行的各个层面，数据开始慢慢取代商品成为新的普遍中介，算法和平台则构成新的秩序机制。在此转变中，物化逻辑并没有终结，而是以数据崇拜的面貌延续、加深了资本对人的统治。数据的中立幻象、算法的个性化叙事，再加上平台对行为的精准调控，本质上构成了数字资本主义的新意识形态结构。面对新变化，亟须激活马克思批判理论在数字时代的解释力、介入力，揭示数字资本主义时代物化机制的新形式。

From Commodity Reification to Data Reification: Redefining the Form of Value

从商品物化到数据物化：重新定义价值形态

In *Capital*, Marx pointed out that in a commodity economy the social relations between people are concealed by relations among things, thereby revealing the essence of the fetishism phenomenon. Under the capitalist system of production, value is abstracted from concrete labor and exists independently in the form of commodity exchange value, so that social relations are shrouded beneath the shell of things. This is an inevitable result of the inner logic of capitalism and a systematic suppression of human subjectivity and sociality by the self-valorization mechanism of value.

马克思在《资本论》中指出，商品经济中人与人的社会关系被物与物的关系掩盖，实际上揭示了拜物教现象的本质。在资本主义生产体系下，价值从具体劳动中抽离并且以商品交换价值的形式独立存在，从而使社会关系被遮蔽在物的外壳之下。这是资本主义内在逻辑的必然结果，也是价值自我增殖机制对人的主体性与社会性的系统性压制。

Entering the digital age, the logic of commodity reification has not come to an end; rather, supported by technological conditions, it has undergone a renewal of form. Data, as a new factor of production and core of value, constructs new relations of value mediation through its immateriality, real-time nature, and replicability. Data does not attach itself to tangible material carriers but circulates in non-material forms such as information fragments, algorithmic models, and records of user behavior. This “dematerialization” has not weakened the reification mechanism; on the contrary, it has further enhanced the abstractness and concealment of the value form, allowing the logic of reification to acquire an even more covert and universal mode of existence. In this process, data, as a special form of value, exhibits a new duality: on the one hand, data appears as neutral, transparent, and shareable; on the other hand, data is deeply embedded in the logic of capital’s collection, computation, and control, becoming a new field for capital’s valorization. Just as Marx revealed that the mystery of the commodity lies not in its material attributes but in the social labor hidden behind it, so too the mystery of data originates from its extraction and concealment of countless micro-labor processes and subjective practices. From the behavioral trajectories of individuals on platforms to the collective participation of knowledge, everything is transformed into measurable and tradable data assets under the logic of capital. Lukács once stated in *History and Class Consciousness* that reification means not only the domination of things but also the loss of human beings’ capacity for holistic cognition of society. Under the logic of data capitalism, what individuals actually face is an information universe organized by algorithmic structures, which constructs new experiential structures through precise recommendations, intelligent matching, and personalized suggestions, further obscuring people’s holistic understanding of social relations, the logic of production, and even their own social position. Without realizing it, people consume data and gradually become part of the data production chain. Over time, the process of datafication is naturalized and rationalized within the technical-rational discourse of “efficiency,” “convenience,” and “freedom.” More profoundly, data reification has also redefined the measure of value. In the traditional commodity economy, value depended on the congealing of labor time; in the data economy, value is more embodied in the capture of attention, the prediction of behavior, and the recognition of patterns. People’s daily behaviors become the direct raw material of capital, and every aspect of social life is incorporated into the system of value production. This essentially marks a deep transformation of the logic of capitalism: beyond producing material commodities, it now produces behavior itself, and capital’s control thereby extends to the mode of existence and social practice of the subject.

进入数字时代，商品物化逻辑并未就此终结，而是在技术条件的支撑下实现了形态更新。数据作为新的生产要素与价值核心，以其无实体性、实时性和可复制性构建起新的价值中介关系。数据不依附于有形的物质载体，而是以信息片段、算法模型与用户行为记录等非物质形式流通。“去物质化”不仅没有削弱物化机制，反而进一步增强了价值形态的抽象性与遮蔽性，让物化逻辑获得了更为隐蔽且普遍的存在方式。在此过程中，数据作为价值形态的一种特殊存在，呈现新的二重性：一方面，数据以中立、透明和可共享的姿态出现；另一方面，数据深深嵌入资本权力的收集、运算与控制逻辑之中，成为资本增殖的新场域。正如马克思所揭示的，商品的神秘性不在于其物质属性，而在于隐藏在其背后的社会劳动。同理，数据的神秘性也源于其对无数微观劳动与主体实践的抽取与遮蔽。从个体在平台上的行为轨迹到群体性的知识参与，都被转化为资本逻辑下可度量、可交易的数据资产。卢卡奇在《历史与阶级意识》中曾言，物化不仅意味着物的统治，更意味着人对社会整体性认知能力的丧失。在数据资本主义逻辑下，个体面对的实际上是一个被算法结构所组织的信息宇宙，其以精准推送、智能匹配、个性化推荐的形式构建起新的经验结构，进一步遮蔽了人们对社会关系、生产逻辑乃至自身社会位置的整体理解。人在不知不觉中消费数据，并且逐渐成为数据生产链条的一部分。日积月累，数据化的过程在“效率”“便利”“自由”等技术理性话语中被自然化与合理化。更为深刻的是，数据物化还重新定义了价值的衡量方式。在传统商品经济中，价值依赖于劳动时间的凝结；而在数据经济中，价值更多体现为注意力的捕获、行为的预测与模式的识别。人的日常行为成为资本的直接素材，社会生活的方方面面皆被纳入价值生产体系之中。这本质上标志着资本主义逻辑的一次深层转型：除了生产物质商品，更生产行为本身，资本的控制由此延伸至主体的生存方式与社会实践。

From commodity reification to data reification is not a simple media shift but a deeper process of capitalist restructuring of social relations. Fetishism does not disappear with the retreat of the material commodity form; rather, it gains new continuity within the illusion of “transparency” created by data. In response, the task of Marx’s critical theory in the digital age is precisely to re-identify the forms of expression of the reification phenomenon and thereby reveal the labor relations, power structures, and social alienation hidden behind data fetishism.

从商品物化到数据物化，不是一次单纯的媒介转换，而是资本主义对社会关系更深层次的重构过程。拜物教并不随着物质商品形态的退场而消亡，而是在数据制造的“透明性”幻觉中获得了新的延续。对此，马克思批判理论在数字时代的任务，正是在于重新识别物化现象的表现形式，进而揭示数据拜物教背后所掩盖的劳动关系、权力结构与社会异化过程。

From False Consciousness to Algorithmic Ideology: Deepening the Critique of Ideology

从虚假意识到算法意识形态：深化意识形态批判

Ideology has never belonged solely to the realm of ideas; it is rather the “naturalized expression” of social relations—a mechanism that disguises specific historical conditions as universal truths. In *The German Ideology*, Marx pointed out that the ideas of the ruling class become the ruling ideas precisely because, while maintaining the existing order, they also make that order appear to require no maintenance. In traditional capitalist society, this was realized mainly on the basis of commodity exchange and the division of labor: individuals mistakenly regarded the capitalist structure as a natural social form and thus willingly participated in it.

意识形态从未仅仅属于观念的领域，而是社会关系的“自然化表达”——一种将具体历史条件伪装为普遍真理的机制。马克思在《德意志意识形态》中指出，统治阶级的思想之所以成为主导思想，正是因为它在维系既有秩序的同时，也能让秩序看似无需维系。在传统资本主义社会中，这一点主要是在商品交换与劳动分工的基础上实现的，个体误将资本主义结构视为自然而然的社会形态，从而心甘情愿地参与其中。

However, technological change has not ended the operation of ideology; on the contrary, it has injected new forms into it. In the era of digital capitalism, algorithms have become the operational interface of ideology. They embed the logic of capital deep within everyday experience, so that ideology no longer relies on grand narratives or authoritative indoctrination but unfolds quietly in the form of “personalized recommendations” and “intelligent pushes.” In this process, algorithms do not force individuals to accept certain ideas; rather, they shape the world that individuals can perceive and preset the possible boundaries of their thought and action. Ideology thus no longer hovers above but lurks between every swipe and click. Althusser proposed that ideology once “interpellated” individuals, causing them to unconsciously assume specific social roles. Today, this traditional interpellation has been quietly taken over by algorithms. The continuous recording and analysis of behavior by algorithms encodes users as a set of data vectors and, based on this, feeds back content “matching their interests.” In choices that appear self-directed, individuals are in fact led into a structure of meaning constructed by the platform. In the process, the subjective agency of the individual is dissolved in the constant prediction of behavior, and the reproduction of the subject is thus transformed into a component of capital’s operation.

然而，技术变革并没有终结意识形态的运作，反而为其注入了新的形式。进入数字资本主义时代，算法成为意识形态的运作接口。其将资本逻辑深植于日常经验之中，让意识形态不再依赖宏大的叙事或权威的灌输，而以“个性化推荐”“智能推送”的形式悄然展开。在此过程中，算法不强迫个体接受某种观念，而是塑造其所能感知的世界，预设其思考与行动的可能边界，因而意识形态不再高悬于上，而是潜伏于每一次滑动与点击之间。阿尔都塞提出，意识形态曾经“召唤”个体促使其在无意识中承担起特定社会角色。今天，传统的召唤由算法悄然接手。算法对行为的持续记录与分析，将用户编码为一组数据向量，并据此反馈“符合其兴趣”的内容，在看似自我主导的选择中，个体实则被引入一套被平台建构的意义结构之中。其间，个体的主观能动性在不断的行为预测中被消解，主体的再生产由此转化为资本运行的组成环节。

Even more covert is the fact that algorithms produce a naturalized illusion of reality. The “precision,” “convenience,” and “efficiency” constructed by data technology are, in essence, capital’s continuous appropriation of attention, time, and behavior, yet they are packaged as neutral optimization schemes. As Marx pointed out in his critique of classical political economy, the greatest problem is not error itself but the mistaking of historical relations for natural laws. In today’s information society, what algorithms obscure is judgment itself: they do not prevent you from thinking, but they have already determined the material and direction of your thought. What is more, algorithmic ideology possesses the capacity for self-replication. Behavioral data continuously feeds back into the system, forming a closed predictive loop. The more individuals comply with recommendations, the better the system “understands” their preferences, thereby further reinforcing the original path and ultimately producing cognitive closure and behavioral lock-in. What is called “voluntary passivity” is precisely the real predicament in which individuals, believing themselves free in the digital environment, find it difficult to escape.

更具隐蔽性的在于，算法制造了一种被自然化的现实幻觉。数据技术构建的“精准”“便捷”“高效”，本质上是资本对注意力、时间与行为的持续占有，却被包装为中立的优化方案。正如马克思批判古典政治经济学时所指出的，最大的问题并非谬误本身，而是将历史关系误认为自然法则。在如今的信息社会中，算法遮蔽的是判断力本身：它不阻止你思考，但早已决定了你思考的素材与方向。更甚者，算法意识形态具有自我复制的能力。行为数据不断反馈系统形成闭合的预测回路。个体越是顺从推送，系统就越能“理解”其偏好，从而进一步强化原有路径，最终形成认知封闭与行为锁定。所谓“自愿的被动”，正是个体在数字环境中自以为自由却难以摆脱的现实困境。

It can be said that algorithmic ideology is not a technical replica of false consciousness but its qualitative transformation under the logic of data. In response, the Marxist critique of ideology must once again exert itself at the intersection of technology, institutions, and subjective construction, if it is to reveal the logic of domination lurking behind seemingly free choices.

可以说，算法意识形态并非虚假意识的技术翻版，而是其在数据逻辑下的质变。对此，马克思主义对意识形态的批判必须重新从技术、制度与主观构造的交汇处发力，才足以揭示那看似自由选择背后所潜藏的统治逻辑。

From Labor Alienation to Data Alienation: Reshaping the Critique of Subjectivity

从劳动异化到数据异化：重塑主体性批判

Marx mentioned in the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844* that the essence of capitalist labour is alienated labour. Alienated labour deprives the human being of its subjectivity, while simultaneously distorting the human being’s essential powers, causing the individual to lose the self in production and ultimately to become a mere instrument for the self-valorisation of capital. In the current era of digital capitalism, the process of labour alienation has not diminished; rather, it has deepened in the new forms of data production and data extraction. Although individuals no longer participate in production as labourers in the traditional sense in their daily behaviour, as users, consumers and participants they have long been unconsciously contributing data resources that can be collected, computed and commodified. Minute actions such as clicks, browsing, dwell time and emotional responses are all captured by algorithms and transformed into sources of valorisation. The alienation of the labour process no longer manifests as the expropriation of physical labour in the factory, but achieves a new form of domination through the comprehensive mobilisation of attention, emotion and social behaviour.

马克思在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中曾经提及，资本主义劳动的本质是异化劳动。异化劳动剥夺了人的主体性，同时扭曲了人的本质力量，让个体在生产中失去自我，最终沦为资本增殖的工具。在当前的数字资本主义时代，劳动异化的过程没有减弱，而是以数据生产和数据提取的新形态得以加深。虽然个体在日常行为中不再以传统意义上的劳动者身份参与生产，但是作为用户、消费者、参与者，早已在无意识中贡献着可被收集、运算和商品化的数据资源。点击、浏览、停留、情绪反应等微小动作，都会被算法捕捉并转化为价值增殖的源泉。劳动过程的异化也不再表现为工厂中体力劳动的剥夺，而是通过对注意力、情感和社交行为的全面动员实现新的支配。

The peculiarity of data alienation lies in the fact that it blurs the boundaries between labour and non-labour, production and consumption. The individual’s life itself becomes the object of data extraction; labour is no longer confined to a specific time and space but extends into leisure, entertainment, social interaction and even emotional expression. As Marx pointed out in *Capital*, capital strives to break through all spatial and temporal limits in order to achieve its self-valorisation. In the digital age, the unlimited expansion of capital receives technological support in reality. The subject is passively drawn into the data value chain in every detail of life, so that labour alienation acquires a more concealed and thorough form of expression. More crucially, data alienation not only deprives the individual of control over the products of his or her labour, but also deprives the individual of the cognitive capacity for his or her own mode of existence. The subject is decomposed into countless data points, classified, predicted and disciplined by algorithms. In this process, the individual’s freedom of action, formation of will and even emotional experience are gradually incorporated into a logic that capital can programme and manipulate. Alienation shifts from control over material production to the comprehensive shaping of the subject’s state of existence, ultimately driving the formation of the deepest social crisis of the digital age.

数据异化的特殊之处在于，它模糊了劳动与非劳动、生产与消费的界限。个体的生活本身成为数据提取的对象，劳动不再局限于特定时间和空间，而是蔓延到休闲、娱乐、社交乃至情感表达之中。正如马克思在《资本论》中指出的，资本力图打破一切空间、时间的限制以实现自我增殖。在数字时代，资本的无限扩张得到技术上的现实支撑。主体在生活的每一个细节中都被动参与到数据价值链条中，劳动异化因此获得了更为隐蔽和彻底的表现形式。更为关键的是，数据异化除了剥夺个体对劳动成果的控制权，更剥夺了个体对自身存在形式的认知能力。主体被分解为无数数据点，被算法归类、预测和规训。在此过程中，个体的行动自由、意志形成乃至情感体验逐渐被纳入资本可编程、可操控的逻辑之中。异化从对物质生产的控制转向对主体生存状态的全面塑形，最终推动数字时代最深层次社会危机的形成。

From labour alienation to data alienation, the essence is the deepening process of capital’s plunder of human subjectivity with the support of technology. Faced with the new forms of alienation in the digital age, the task of Marx’s critical theory is by no means merely to reveal the data power structure beneath the surface, but still more to raise anew the question of the liberation of human subjectivity. Only by critically exposing the logic of data can a conception of the subject based on sociality, historicity and praxis be reconstructed, and only thus can the alienated existence of the human being be rescued in the era of digital capitalism.

从劳动异化到数据异化，本质上是资本在技术加持下对人类主体性掠夺的深化过程。面对数字时代新型异化现象，马克思批判理论的任务绝不仅仅是揭示表象下的数据权力结构，更在于重新提出人的主体性解放问题。只有对数据逻辑进行批判性揭示，才能重建以社会性、历史性和实践性为基础的主体观，才能在数字资本主义时代挽救被异化的人的存在。

From commodity fetishism to data worship, the logic of capital has completed a new concealment and domination in the digital age. In the digital age, the appearance of reification has been renewed, but the alienation of real social relations between human beings has deepened all the more. In the meantime, algorithms shape the appearance of the world and, in silence, shape the mode of human existence. Faced with these new changes, Marx’s critical theory is entrusted with a new historical task: to reveal the sociality behind the data form, to resist the total occupation of the subject by the logic of capital, and to reaffirm the social essence of the human being and practical freedom. Only in this way can the path to liberation be reopened through the fog of appearances in digital capitalism.

从商品拜物教到数据崇拜，资本逻辑在数字时代完成了新的遮蔽与统治。在数字时代，物化的面貌更新了，但人与人之间真实社会关系的异化却愈发加深了。算法在此期间塑造了世界的表象，在悄无声息中塑造了人的存在方式。面对新变化，马克思批判理论被赋予新的历史任务：揭示数据形式背后的社会性，抵抗资本逻辑对主体的全面占领，重申人的社会本质与实践自由。唯有如此，才能在数字资本主义的表象迷雾中重新打开通向解放的道路。

(The author is a lecturer at the School of Marxism, Xinjiang Normal University.)

（作者系新疆师范大学马克思主义学院讲师）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心