Monetization of emotions: tactics of modern Ostap Bender

The paper is devoted to the problem of monetization of emotions carried out in modern times online and offline. The relevance of the research is due to the formation of a digital society, which forms a new type of personality – the electronic nomad – and new types of social relations. The study of the problem based on the analytical method revealed manipulative tactics that contribute to the division of people into two groups in the process of emotion monetization: manipulators who control the consciousness and actions of electronic nomads, and consumers representing a mass segment of society. Today, coaches, bloggers, experts, consultants, ticktockers, business coaches, etc. act as manipulators. Promising consumers a life change for the better, they promote online and offline services/products (in the form of seminars, courses, trainings, etc.) that contribute to achieving happiness. As a technique for managing people, the manipulator chooses a hybrid communication format in which he creates conditions for an emotional connection with the consumer based on a confidential conversation, demonstration of his success and positive thinking. Stories about happiness are presented in an accessible or complicated form using scientific rhetoric. The very practices of achieving happiness and well-being are abstract. By promising the processality of emotional experiences through involvement in the service, the manipulator inspires the consumer with the illusion of help. But due to the instability of existence in a twoworld environment, with constant transitions from reality to virtuality and vice versa, and fatigue from an overabundance of information, a large number of people show interest in the manipulator’s activities without reflecting on information and buying services. The adventurous, enterprising and resourceful manipulator makes it possible to characterize him as a modern Ostap Bender, who is the bearer of the trickster archetype. Possessing a cynical mind, he simultaneously monetizes the emotions of consumers and gets out of conflict situations with them, becoming a successful and rich man.