Fiona Carswell

Ego Tax

Ego Tax was a tongue-in-cheek website encouraging users to pay a voluntary tax every time they tweeted about themselves. The project explored the predominance of self-promotion in the modern world balanced by self-awareness and self-consciousness.

When a participant entered their own Twitter handle on the Ego Tax website, the site parsed their tweets for pre-set phrases or hashtags that might indicate self absorption. Depending on their level of self absorption, the site then suggested a 'tax' amount to be paid by the participant to a suggested charity. The charities suggested were based on the participants' interests, as gleaned from the tweets. For example, if they frequently used the hashtag “#selfie”, it suggested that they pay a tax on their ego by making a donation to a portrait photography charity.

Fiona Carswell, Ego Tax, 2014. Web project.