So after reading me some Cal Newport, Cory Doctorow and Kim Stanley Robinson, I’ve found myself pivoting from a Tech Evangalist to a Tech Pessimist. I’m not going as far as proclaiming that tech and everything else is the downfall of humanity, as some are telling me. They said it about Facebook, about Twitter/X, and I’m pretty sure it’ll all self-regulate. But for future generations, we need to seriously think about what Tech will do for us.
Let me lay out the arguments in a neat form: the attention/cognition argument; the autonomy and privacy argument; the inequality argument; and the fragility of interconnecteness argument. Let me lay out the counter-arguments in a neat form: normalisation-argument; solution for crises-argument; the information and democratization argument; and the productivity argument. And finally, let me give some points on how to solve this: design-for-minimalism; right to repair and data portability; de-platform; improve digital literacy and critical thinking; open source alternatives.
Attention economy apps like social media hog our time and concentration. It ruins our focus with constant pings on Teams, Slack, WhatsApp and X. We can’t concentrate on single tasks. I’m charmed by the work of Cal Newport in this senses, he strives for his readers to think about blocking your day, in order to not get dragged into endless doomscrolling/watching sessions. I highly recommend his Slow Productivity book, but everyhing he’s written is great. My personal favorite is ‘A World Without Email’, it really got me thinking how email is still king, especially in the public sector.
The superficiality of our developing brains is not well documented yet, but some concerning data has already surfaced.
Constant surveillance by corporations and social platforms have reduced our privacy to a minimum, even though we know the risks. The most evil aspect of it all is the fact that the submersive aspect of advertisements are now slowly unveiled. No wonder I’m delving into a hobby that requires very little.
To be continued