A Neglected Question

Almost all of us are victims of surveillance capitalism. Yet sometimes digital privacy enthusiasts dance around a bigger issue – our relationship with technology itself.

Some critique Cal Newport, the best-selling author who coined the term “digital minimalism,” for neglecting digital privacy. Unsurprisingly, he recently conceded that big tech companies' commodifying personal data for profit leaves a bad taste in his mouth. But his blog and books attack from a different angle, seeming almost backwards in the brawl against surveillance capitalism.

It is not the social media platforms themselves that strike fear in the hearts of digital privacy advocates but rather their harvesting our raw material to predict consumer behavior. Owning personal data reigns supreme over considering how long and how frequently our eyes glue to phone and laptop screens: no second thoughts about surrendering analog interactions to the digital. While this issue remains unaddressed, decentralized social media networks, such as Mastodon and PixelFed, emerge to replace villains like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Restoring control and autonomy over user data is good. I like the IndieWeb movement. But these “solutions” do not fix compulsions to accumulate digital social capital and combat every dull moment by checking a smartphone.

The question is almost always “why are the companies doing this wrong?” and almost never “why am I looking at my screen all the time?”

I am not suggesting that these problems are mutually exclusive, or that surveillance capitalism is avoidable or not as bad as folks claim. But such disconnect is partially why we are broken.

I’ve nearly finished Infinite Jest and suspect I will find no author who characterizes addiction and American consumerism so eerily as David Foster Wallace:

Like most North Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he’s devoted to than he does about the objects and pursuits themselves. It’s hard to say for sure whether this is even exceptionally bad, this tendency.