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Today, our affinities are increasingly no longer our own, but rather are selected for us for the purpose of automated economic gain. The automation of our cognition and the predicative power of technology to monetize our behavior, indeed our very thinking, is transforming not only our societies and discourse with one another, but also our very neurochemistry. It is a late chapter of a larger story, about the deepening incursion of mercantile thinking into the groundwater of our philosophical ideals. This technology is no longer just shaping the world around us, but actively remaking us from within. Ayad Akhtar
it is no secret that nearly everything we do online (&& increasingly offline as well) generates data. the data barons of surveillance capitalism are "unilaterally claiming our private human experience, as their free source of raw material" (Shoshana Zuboff). u might say, "I know that Google and Facebook do this, but I don't really care" maybe because u "have nothing to hide" or maybe because u "like the convenience and tailored ads". these sentiments however stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of how surveillance capitalism works + what these platforms are for. Google is not here to help u find what u're looking for, nor is Facebook here to help u connect w/family && friends. these platforms are data farms which convert our on/offline experience into data which is then used to train AI && create some of the most powerful algorithms in history. these AI algorithms can not only predict our behavior, they can influence it.
as Facebook's "emotional contagion study" proved in 2012 (as have many other studies since), these platforms can not only manipulate our thoughts, feelings && behaviors, they can do so without us even realizing that it's happening. a common misconception is that these corporations sell our data, but this is rarely the case, our data is much too valuable to sell directly. instead, the data barons sell our behavior as a service to their customers. these behavior manipulation && prediction services are what these online platforms are for.
If you don't know what the software you're using is for, then you're not using it, but being used by it. Douglas Rushkoff
when we search for videos on YouTube, && subsequently comment + share + like + subscribe: our thoughts + values + interests + relationships become data. For example, YouTube (Alphabet) generates billions of dollars in revenue by selling not our data per say, but our attention. attention which they've captured + retained through the insight they've generated from our data. the patterns in our data become strong predictors for which recommendations will most likely keep us hooked as long as possible. that's often longer than we'd initially intended or even realize when we open the app, but never long enough for the attention merchants. the AI is given the task of capturing our attention for as long as possible by any means necessary, && while it's stewards can certainly perform tests to see how well it's doing in meeting its insidious goal, they can't always tell (nor do they think to ask) how it's gone about doing that, thus are often blindsided by the side-effects. like the way the YouTube recommendation algorithm had been unintentionally radicalizing it's users (not merely keeping them hooked), or the way Instagram causes mental health issues in young women, or the way Facebook amplifies hate speech which, in the most extreme cases, has contributed to mass genocide.
we don't just use these online platforms, we live online. these are not just tools, this is our environment, && "as human discourse adapts to its new home, everything we do and think as human beings will be and is being shaped by new values" (Virginia Heffernan). these new norms + values are increasingly being influenced by the logic of surveillance capitalism, && when we use these online platforms we, consciously or not, perpetuate these new values. but there are ways of using (or misusing) these online platforms in a manner that undermines the exploitative algorithms + dark patterns designed by the data barons of surveillance capitalism: the practice of tactical misuse, here's how.
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House Audre Lorde
keep in mind, this practice is merely one vector through which to critically engage w/these platforms + address these issues. it is a short term solution, a way to act now, both in the interest of better understanding how these systems work && reclaiming some momentary agency within these systems. moving fwd there are a number of other vectors for resistance + change. to learn more about how these systems work as well as what else we can do stop/change/replace them, check out my online hypermedia essay howthey.watch/you as well as my resources page howthey.watch/us
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